A grandma in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was on an errand with her grandson when she saw her daughter’s car go past, driven by a teenager with a squad of friends inside.
The 48-year-old had reported the car stolen earlier that morning, and seeing it drive by was just too tempting. She called 911 and then jumped into action to follow the car — but paid for that decision with her life.
On Jan. 19, a 14-year-old boy shot La’Tasha Thomas in broad daylight as her 8-year-old grandson, Omar, looked on in horror. The suspect reportedly stopped his car, walked back to Thomas’s vehicle, and shot her point-blank through the glass window.
“My nephew had my mother’s blood all over him,” recounted Thomas’ daughter Kahadijah Woods to local news site UWK.
The family had gathered together for a brunch that morning to celebrate the birthday of Omar’s mother, Beyonce, but before festivities could even start, Beyonce’s rental car disappeared from the driveway. Thomas decided to go to the grocery store while they waited for the police to show up.
“For some strange reason, she took my son with her that day. I kept calling, but she wouldn’t answer. My nerves were shot,” Beyonce told the news outlet.
Beyonce knew something wasn’t right when her mother didn’t answer her phone or return texts, and then she heard the sirens. Her intuition kicked into high gear. Without a car, she flagged down a stranger to drive her toward the noise, and that’s where she discovered the horrific scene.
“I heard my baby screaming, “Mom, Mom! They killed Momo. They killed Momo,’ I just lost it,” she said.
Omar tried his best to provide a description, saying there were four males in the car with covered faces.
“He said one was chubby, one was skinny, but he couldn’t identify anyone because they all had on ski masks,” said Beyonce, adding that her family believes they shot Thomas for no other reason than to avoid getting caught.
“They saw the car, and by them knowing what kind of car they had just stolen, they took her life. For a tragedy like this to happen, and for him to have no type of heart, just to kill her in front of my son,” the distraught mother said.
The suspect who fired the gun reportedly confessed to his mother afterward, and she took him down to the Baton Rouge police station, where he turned himself in. Police recovered the charred remains of the car — it had been set on fire — but there has been no word yet about additional arrests. The boy, who remains unidentified due to his age, was charged with second-degree murder and illegal use of a weapon.
“I’m grateful she turned him in, but why did it have to come to this? Why did my mom have to lose her life? Why did this happen? Why did I have to lose my mom the day before my birthday? She didn’t deserve this. My son didn’t deserve to witness this,” said Beyonce.
Amid the outpouring of support from the community, there are still so many questions. A person who identified herself as Thomas’ cousin wrote in a Facebook post, “We lost big. Tasha was a calm spirit, she didn’t bother nobody, who would think a 14-year-old would pull a gun and shoot her over a car they stole?”
A GoFundMe was set up for the family to help with funeral expenses. In it, Thomas was described as a “very down-to-earth person” who loved to cook and enjoyed arts and crafts. “To see her life taken in such a violent way is something we cannot come to terms with.”