Grieving Chicago mother can't understand why robbers shot, killed her daughter
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A mother opened up Thursday after her daughter was senselessly murdered in a car on Chicago's South Side after she and a friend gave up everything in a robbery.
The grieving mother wants to know why the robber shot her daughter even after she complied.
"That smile just, that smile," said Regina Houston.
Now, the only way to for Houston see her daughter's smile is through old pictures.
"This was my girl," Houston said. "They took something precious."
Memories of daughter Angelica Houston, 27, are all her mother now has left. Angelica was one of Regina Houston's six daughters.
"A bond, a strong bond, a peace," said Regina Houston. "It tore all of us apart. It ripped all of our hearts."
According to investigators, last week, Angelica and a friend were sitting in a car in the 7000 block of South Vernon Avenue in the Grand Crossing neighborhood just after 11 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 29, when two men with guns demanded they hand over their belongings.
The women complied with the robbers' demands. Yet police said Angelica tried driving off—at which point a robber shot a gun.
Angelica was struck in the head. The friend in the passenger seat tended to her wounds, but Angelica did not survive.
"I mean, you shot my baby in the head. You shot her. For what?" said Regina Houston. "Every time I think about that, that's the pain."
Angelica was murdered, and her friend is now left to replay the horrific events—despite the fact that they both handed everything over to the robbers.
"She gives you the things that whatever you wanted, and you still—as she tried to get away, you shoot her?" said Regina Houston. "That's just—I want him to be caught."
While Chicago Police have not arrested anyone in this case, Angelica's mother said Wentworth Area detectives informed her they do have video of the suspect and his accomplice running off.
The video did not get a good image of the shooter's face. but Regina Houston wants the shooter to take a good look at her daughter's face, because she says the murder should be weighing on him.
"Think if someone was going to rob you, would you want somebody to pull a gun to your head and shoot you? Think before you go out here," Houston said. "But it's so many people on these drugs."
Yet Angelica was simply sitting in a car in the middle of the day. As family mourns, the mother reflects on a text message she shared with Angelica an hour before the murder.
"'God got you,'" Houston said. "That was her word that morning. 'God got you, mom.'"
Now, Houston finds comfort believing her daughter is in God's arms.