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Eric Garner's Family Joins Vigil for Grandmother Killed at Her Front Door

By Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska | April 3, 2015 11:13am
 The families of Eric Garner and Sean Bell joined the vigil.
Community Gathers at Vigil to Mourn Grandmother Killed at Her Queens Home
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QUEENS — Dozens of mourners, including the families of Eric Garner and Sean Bell, gathered Thursday night at a prayer vigil for a grandmother who was killed when she answered the door earlier this week. 

Leta Webb, 70, was shot in the head and left arm when she answered the door at her home on 119th Avenue, near 153rd Street, in South Jamaica around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, police said. 

On Thursday night, during the vigil held in front of Webb’s house, friends and neighbors held candles and distributed fliers offering a $2,000 reward to help find the suspect, while community leaders denounced gun violence.

“It’s a good feeling — I hope it’s not just for tonight,” said Kevin McDowell, the victim's son-in-law, who lived with her and her sons.

“We called her 'the mayor' because she was the best,” he said about Webb, a homemaker who had lived on the block for more than two decades.

The families of Eric Garner, who died last year after being placed in a chokehold by a police officer in Staten Island, and Sean Bell, killed in barrage of police gunfire in 2006 in Jamaica, joined the vigil.

“I know how you feel. I lost a parent to a senseless crime,” said Garner’s daughter, Emerald Garner. 

Police officials have said the shooting may have been a “possible retaliation” against another member of Webb's family. 

Webb’s adopted son, Arnold Webb, 27, is serving a 25-year sentence in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree manslaughter in 2011, according to family and court records. Family members have said he was a gang member.

It was not clear if Arnold Webb or anyone else in the house was the target.

Mourners said they hope the shooter will be caught and brought to justice.  

“All of this gang activity needs to stop because when you are involved in the gang you just involved your whole family,” said Lance Feurtado, a former gang member who now runs King of Kings Foundation, a nonprofit fighting gang violence.

“We are saying, whoever did this, you need to turn yourself in and stand accounted for the senseless crime that you did."