Authorities in Louisville are looking for a suspect who fatally shot a 23-year-old woman while she was walking her 7-year-old daughter to a bus stop.
Per WHAS11, the family of the deceased victim, identified as Redaja “Juicy” Williams, said that the fatal Wednesday shooting occurred close to the Coleridge-Taylor Elementary School as she was walking her young daughter to the bus stop.
“I had to watch my sister lay on that ground and take her last breath,” Lavett Knuckles said. “There was nothing I could do about it.”
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Schreida Simmons, who is Williams’ mother, also described her deceased daughter as “the life of the party.” “She’d light up the room every time she came in – you’d know it was Juicy,” Williams’ cousin, Twand Howard, added.
Williams’ aunt, Donna Cole, addressed the press the day after the fatal shooting, saying that she was worried an incident of such nature could recur in their community.
“I’m here today because my niece was killed yesterday in front of her daughter and her niece and all the other children who was on the bus,” Cole said. “I’m traumatized. I live in fear. Not that they’re going to do anything to me but to another person’s child.”
Though the Louisville Metro Police (LMPD) are yet to identify the shooter, they questioned a 15-year-old boy over the incident. He was, however, ultimately released after authorities determined he was not linked to Williams’ killing. Authorities later charged that teen in connection with another shooting that happened at that same location, WHAS11 reported.
“This is my daughter’s bus stop as well. She witnessed this too,” Knuckles said. “She’s traumatized, so many questions.”
Community leaders and the Louisville Metro Police accompanied parents as they walked their children to the bus stop to board the bus for school the morning after Williams’ killing.
“Our children should not have to show up at a bus stop full of cops and squad cars just so they can get on the bus. That’s not the reality I want for my child, that’s not the reality I want for anybody else’s child,” Lyndon Pryor, president of the Louisville Urban League, said.
Williams’ uncle, Kenneth Simmons, is calling on the shooter to surrender to authorities. “If you’re real men, say who done it. Please. ‘Cause it may be your child next,” Simmons said.
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