RICHMOND, Va. -- Little Aubrey Walker says she held her dad’s hand and said, “I love you.”
Her mom says Aubrey is at peace knowing her dad is in the sky.
Her father, Alexander Briggs was shot in the chest Saturday on Afton Avenue. He died at VCU Medical Center late Wednesday night.
Alexander Briggs
The young and the innocent are forced to deal with the impact of violent crime, all too regularly.
"Dad is in the sky," Aubrey repeated. The five-year-old was there as the decision was made to take him off life support.
"What did you tell him?” WTVR CBS 6 reporter Jon Burkett asked.
“That I loved him!" the child replied.
"To watch her go to the hospital and see her dad fight for his life,” said her grandmother, Janet Goode, who is also the mother of Alexander Briggs. “The expression on her face. It wasn't nice."
Janet Goode and her grandchildren.
She was happy to hear police made an arrest in his case: Carrol Speight, who also suffered a gunshot wound, was charged with gun crimes and aggravated assault. Other charges are pending.
"What's in the dark will come to light,” Goode said.
And in the daylight Thursday, three more were shot. One was shot off West Charity Street, and suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Two more were shot on North 39th Street near Crestview, leaving one man dead.
Police identified that victim as 24-year-old Hakeem Winston.
Another man was dropped off at VCU with life-threatening injuries.
They are added to a grim list that includes a man killed on Clarkson Road Monday and another killed at Midlothian Village apartments Tuesday.
Seven shot - four killed - in five days.
It upsets a mother, who had planned for her son to bury her, not the other way around.
"I made preparations for me to go first,” Goode said. “I wanted another grandbaby and [the killer] cheated me of that. He stole my son from me."
Crime Insider sources said the Afton Avenue investigation is still open and that the man dropped off at VCU Medical Center remains in critical condition.
