Mother Demands Answers More Than 5 Weeks After Her Daughter Was Shot And Killed In Avalon Park
CHICAGO (CBS) -- It has been five weeks since a Chicago woman lost her daughter to gun violence in Avalon Park – five weeks of mourning and questions, but no answers.
Now, Demetric Brown is demanding them from Mayor Lori Lightfoot and police Supt. David Brown. She shared her plea with CBS 2's Marie Saavedra.
"It's just too much senseless killing in Chicago," Brown said.
Brown's holiday is marked by grief, after being forced to join Chicago's most painful club.
"Now I'm a part of the other mothers who have lost their kids to senseless violence," she said.
Her 30-year-old daughter, Latavia Brown, was on her way to a bank on Nov. 16.
"Just running her errands, and now she's not here anymore," Brown said.
Latavia Brown was riding in as her boyfriend drove. We counted more than a dozen bullet holes in the car - and that is just on the front windshield. There were twice as many casings littered and marked all across 83rd Street at Stony Island Avenue.
Chicago Police say a white Chrysler 300 pulled up behind the couple and opened fire. Latavia's boyfriend survived, but she died at Jackson Park Hospital - where her mother said police let her say goodbye.
"They took the sheet over her head, and it was my baby - and it was like she was just laying there asleep," said Demetric Brown, "and that's the worst thing a mother could experience - the death of their child that way."
In the weeks since, Brown has put her focus on raising her 12-year-old grandson and 4-year-old granddaughter. But every day passes with no new information on who killed Latavia and why.
"To the mayor, I need answers," she said. "To Superintendent Brown, I need answers."
Brown said detectives told her after the shooting that surveillance cameras in this area captured the suspect's car and they were able to get the license plate. But when they ran it, CPD said that the car was stolen 12 days before the shooting.
Beyond that, there are no updates, and it is all still under investigation.
Brown knows she will never get her daughter back, but she also feels asking that someone be held responsible for her death should not be too much to ask. So she's asking. And she won't stop.
"I'm not going to be able to sit here and do nothing and be comfortable with what happened and not get justice for her," Brown said. "I've got to get justice."
