RICHMOND, Va. β A Richmond mother is grieving after her 55-year-old mother was shot and killed at an East End apartment complex, marking the first of two homicides at the same location within a week.
Florence McCrea was shot in the face late Sunday night at the Fairmount House apartments while visiting a friend to get a cigarette. Her daughter, Latoya McCrea, said her mother was asked to answer a knock at the door when the shooting occurred.
"They hear a knock at the door. Instead of the person that lived there answering the door, they tell my mom, can you get that for me? And then she gets shot in her face," Latoya said.
Five days later, around 3 a.m. Friday, a man was found shot multiple times in an icy courtyard outside the same apartment complex, according to Crime Insider sources.
The back-to-back incidents have left residents frightened and seeking answers. As I was shooting this story, one resident yelled out their window that "we are scared to even come out our house."
Residents say people in their 60s, 70s and 80s live at the complex and feel they're not getting enough information about the ongoing investigations.
Sources say the two cases are not believed to be connected, but investigators are seeking more information about both homicides, which are labeled as the first and second of 2026 in Richmond.
"That's all I can say to him. Karma's a bβ. You will suffer for everything you did," Latoya said.
Despite her anger over the sudden and violent loss, Latoya finds some peace believing her mother is finally at rest.
"She's been asking, telling God her story. So it's messed up how her life was taken away. But my mom, in a way, my mama is free. She do have her own room, she do have her own space, and she do got her own house. Everything she asked for, in a way, my mama got it," Latoya said.
Florence McCrea will soon be cremated. Her daughter says even in tragedy, she finds comfort believing her mother's prayers were answered, just not in the way her family expected.
This is a developing story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have additional information to share.
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