'Those kids loved their mom,' family grieves for mother
RICHMOND, Calif. -- The killer of a young East Bay mother is still at large. Police say 29-year-old Rashanda Franklin was shot on a Richmond, Calif., street in front of her two young children.
Police are looking for her estranged ex-boyfriend.
"If there's a wife, family member out there, you know him, you know where he's at -- turn him in. That could have been your child," said Franklin's mother Barbara Harris. "There's nothing else to say, her life was just stripped from her this morning."
Police say Franklin's estranged boyfriend, 43-year-old Lawyer Dushan McBride from San Pablo, was captured on surveillance video Tuesday morning -- walking away, then driving off moments after shooting Franklin.
She had been taking her young kids,both under 10 years of age, to school when police say she was cut off by McBride at a stop sign.
The children were in the backseat and saw it all.
"Witnessing your own mother being killed -- my heart breaks for those kids," said Lt. Felix Tan of the Richmond Police Department.
Police say McBride shot Franklin once in the upper body. Witnesses say the two argued at the intersection of 29th and Rheem streets before the shooting.
A neighbor took Franklin's children into a home before police arrived.
"They cry," said neighbor Salvador Realagno. "I feel, it was very sad."
"Those kids loved their mom," said Franklin's aunt Ummu Ikharo-Oza. "I know for sure."
Ikharo-Oza says few words can describe her family's grief.
"How do you explain to a young kid, 'Your mom ain't coming back, somebody took her life.'?" she said.
One neighbor shared cellphone video of McBride driving away. Police say he was in a 2007 silver Mercedes Benz S550 sedan with paper plates.
"What I need is to lift this family up, and her three boys up to God," said Harris.
Richmond police say they received a call for a domestic dispute minutes before the shooting. They say the shooting was definitely targeted, and that police had been called for past domestic violence situations involving the couple.
"It's unfortunate, but I'm going to be praying for the family because it's tragic," said another neighbor Angela Robinson.
Investigators say McBride is not the father of the children who were in the car.