Woman Found Shot To Death In Her South Jamaica, Queens Apartment
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) - A 71-year-old Queens grandmother was shot and killed in her own home as she answered a knock on her door in the middle of the night, and police said late Tuesday that it might have been a revenge killing.
As CBS2's Diane Macedo reported, the community of South Jamaica, Queens came together Tuesday, searching for answers in the murder of beloved grandmother Leta Webb.
"I will never understand it, and I'm not going to rest until whoever did this comes," said Webb's daughter, Eva Usher.
Police said around 1:30 p.m., Webb was shot in the head and left arm as she answered her apartment door around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, in a building on 119th Avenue at 153rd Street.
Her son-in-law, Kevin McDowell, also lives in the home and saw the whole thing.
"I was sleeping, and I heard a knock on the door, but it was like a frantic knocking; like, you know, 'I've got to get in the house,'" McDowell said. "So I was saying 'Who is knocking on the door like that at one in the morning,' and then I heard the gunshots – about four or five shots -- and we came downstairs, and she was there, laying right there on the porch in a pool of blood."
McDowell said the gunman then ran away, taking a path only a local would know.
"Whoever did this, they knew this area, because they knew to jump the fence, and run to the lot, and ran all the way down to the park," he said.
Meanwhile, Webb was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead a few hours later.
Woman Found Shot To Death In Her Jamaica, Queens Apartment
Webb's daughter said she does not believe her mother was targeted, but she believes her house was.
"There was too much trouble coming to the house," Usher said. "She had kids that she had adopted, and they get in trouble, and other people come there and they get mad at you, and they retaliated on my mother. That's what it is. It could've been anybody that opened the door. It just happened to be her."
Usher said gang activity had spilled over into her mother's home.
"It has something to do with Bloods and Crips because she adopted a boy and he's in jail for murder. He had problems," Usher told 1010 WINS' Glenn Schuck. "I think this is a retaliation...that was a hit and I knew something like this was going to happen from all the things that happened here before."
Both family and friends told CBS2's Macedo that Webb's death was a devastating loss, as she lived her life constantly helping others.
"I just yelled out and ran outside. It's sad, I'm just sad, upset for the family," one neighbor said. "I just need justice, something needs to be done."
Usher said she won't rest until her mother's killer gets justice.
"That was my mom, that's all I have is my mother," Usher said. "That hurts. How can you just take a person's life like that?"
Usher said her mother lived in that home for 45 years. She's survived by several children and grandchildren.
There had been no arrests as of late Tuesday afternoon. Police are asking anyone with information on this crime to contact them immediately.
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