It has been nearly four years since a young Antelope Valley father was shot 12 times and killed in broad daylight in a fight turned fatal.
Wednesday, investigators arrested the man they believe was man who pulled the trigger on Nov. 29, 2012, killing Brandy “Brandon” Houston.
Cedric Burton has been charged with murder.
Sheriff deputies and the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office pursued the case despite three men previously being convicted of second degree murder and another man as an accessory in connection with the deadly shooting.
The victim’s family said they always held out hope that the gunman would finally be caught.
“It's justice, but you know everybody wants to know why,” said Chrishonda Coulter, Houston's sister.
The same question still looms in the home where family members put up a memorial blanket of Houston. Wednesday, relatives received the call that the man detectives believe shot the 21-year-old dead has been arrested.
Local
Get Los Angeles's latest local news on crime, entertainment, weather, schools, COVID, cost of living and more. Here's your go-to source for today's LA news.
“It was like it's over with, but we still have to relive everything if he choose to take it to trial. It's like a bittersweet thing,” Coulter said.
For Houston’s mother Sheila Kaufman, years of tension are now gone.
“(It’s) scary,” she said. “By us not knowing him, he might know us, knowing the family. It's scary out there.”
Chrishonda Coulter said the crime is still puzzling.
“My brother wasn't a gang-banger. He wasn't out in the streets like that, so for you to kill him and shoot him that many times behind his back... it just makes me feel some type of way.”
The family said there is not one day that passes without thinking of Brandon.
"He was just a warm soul. I mean you get around him and he was like cuddly lovey like a little bear. He was just awesome.”
He was a new father when he was killed. That baby, Brandon Jr., is now four years old.
“He is just so goofy. He is like every bit of his daddy but he has a little edge on him,” Coulter said. “We will show him pictures of Brandon holding him.”
She said that will remind him of his daddy who now lives in heaven.
“We still keep him living in our home because, like I said, it still seems so unreal.”
A reality that years later is still hard to comprehend.
“Justice is a relief, but peace is never, because that person is not here, so how could I be at peace,” she said.
