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Murdered Bed-Stuy Mother Mourned at Lefferts Place Memorial Service

 Tamecca Haskins, 34, was shot dead Sunday night in Bed-Stuy. Mourners called her a hard-working mom.
Memorial for Tamecca Haskins, Who Was Shot and Killed on Lefferts Place in Bed-Stuy
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BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — Friends and family gathered Tuesday to mourn the death of Tamecca Haskins, a woman they described as a dedicated Bed-Stuy mom who worked two jobs to give her daughter a better life.

About 100 people carried signs, held candles and wore memorial t-shirts to honor the woman they knew affectionately as "Bunky," who spent her whole life on Lefferts Place between Classon and Franklin avenues and who was killed in a Sunday morning shooting.

"She was always motivated to do more and do better," said her mother, Venita Haskins-Watson. "She had so much to offer."

Haskins, 32, was shot along with a 34-year-old man around 2:30 a.m. Sunday outside 180 Lefferts Place, just steps from another memorial celebration that took place earlier that night for a Lefferts Place man who was shot and killed last year, neighbors said.

Just hours earlier, friends and neighbors said they laughed and partied alongside Haskins at a barbecue for Jason Lewis, a father of three who last January was shot and killed in a Clinton Hill diner after a dispute with another customer.

The barbecue was in celebration of Lewis' birthday, neighbors said.

According to friends and family, Haskins graduated from Long Island University last year and worked two jobs as a respiratory therapist at both the Queens Hospital Center and at a Yonkers children's hospital to support her 7-year-old daughter, Esme.

She had just accepted another job at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx right before her death.

"She worked two jobs, went back to school, stayed in school, just so her daughter can have a good life," said Chantina Smith, 32, a neighbor and friend. "Everything she did was for her daughter."

"She didn't have any enemies," said her stepfather, Melvin Watson. "She was very motivated, always. Never sat down lazy. And a good mother."

Tony Herbert, president of National Action Network's east Brooklyn chapter, helped organize the memorial and invited advocates to speak out against gun violence in the community.

One of those invited to speak, central Brooklyn Councilman Robert Cornegy, urged those in attendance to come forward if they had any details about the investigation, which police said is ongoing.

"There's people out here who care," Cornegy said. "You make a choice, whether you're part of correcting this or standing by watching it take place."

"How do we tell a 7-year-old her mother's not coming home?" Herbert asked. "How do you do that?"

"She wasn't a drug dealer or a gang banger, she was a mother," he added. "So why is she gone?"