Wife Of Man Fatally Shot In Fairmount: 'Those Gunshots Destroyed My Life'
By KYW's Hadas Kuznits and Andrew Kramer
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Family members and residents on a Fairmount street are still in shock after a 38-year-old father of two was shot and killed Thursday night in front of one of his children.
The victim, Gerard Grandzol, was remembered during a vigil Friday near 15th and Melon Streets where the shooting happened as he was getting out of his car near his home.
"This is just not fair that this is how he died," Kristen Grandzol, the victim's wife, tells KYW Newsradio.
She struggled to fight back tears as she spoke about her husband.
"He was just the best father to our two girls that you could even imagine," she says. "He was welcoming to everyone in the neighborhood. Everybody loved him and he was just the best."
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Police say two men robbed Gerard of his wallet right after he parked. Then, they shot him twice in the head while his older daughter was in the back seat.
"Those two gunshots just destroyed my life and my two daughters don't have a father now," says Kristen. "I have a six-week-old daughter and a two-and-a-half year-old who saw the whole thing and I don't know if she'll ever be right."
Police are still looking for the suspects.
"We need the homicide detectives to find these animals," adds Kristen, "and put them away for the rest of their lives."
Naomi Fernald and other neighbors are still trying to process what happened.
"It could have been me, could have been my husband, any one of us and we don't know how to feel," says Fernald.
She says Gerard was very popular in their tight-knit neighborhood.
"I'm shocked," Fernald adds. "Something like this was never ever anything that any of us were ever concerned about or thought about."
Photos of Gerard and his family were placed throughout the vigil.