Shooting Victim Identified As 19-Year-Old Mother; Officials Say She Knew The Gunman
SOUTH SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A young mother's murder in South Sacramento has a family grieving her loss. The mother, identified by family as 19-year-old Dajha Richards, was killed inside her own home on Orchard Woods Circle Tuesday morning by a gunman who deputies say she knew.
Grieving family members arrived at the shooting scene, expressing their gut-wrenching emotions.
"She was a loving person, man, that's my sister, she just had a baby September 8th on my birthday," Richards's brother Kenneth Ates said.
Pictures shared by her family show Richards' bright smile, and her pregnancy, just months ago. Her son is now four months old.
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"She just became a mother and that's the best thing that ever happened to her—being a mom," Ates said. "Being a mom, that's the happiest I ever saw, her being a mom."
A large group of family and friends descended on the home and shared embraces after deputies cleared the home turned crime scene. The sheriff's department is not releasing the identity of the gunman — only saying the pair knew each other.
The South Sacramento community is calling for the suspect to turn himself in.
"This person needs to turn himself in because it's just going to get worse," Voice of the Youth activist Berry Accius said. "You know, he's running out here, he's dangerous to the whole community."
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Sacramento County Sheriff's SWAT members and K-9 units scoured the neighborhood earlier in the day searching the suspect. Neighbors were asked to shelter in place and a perimeter was put up blocking people from entering or leaving, as the hours-long search continued for the suspect, who is considered armed and dangerous. The shooting was reported at 9 a.m.
When first responders arrived deputies say their victim was conscious and talking. Her condition became worse. She died at the hospital, leaving her new baby without a mother, and her family heartbroken.
"I love that girl to death," Ates said.
