Far too often, families are the ones most affected by a gunman's action.
"When I see her, all I see is my baby," Razonya Collier said. "I see nothing but happy times. I see my baby, I see my baby growing up, I see her playing, I see her smiling."
Collier's "baby" was 20 years old on Nov. 18, 2015, when she was walking with an older man near 97th and Avalon in South Los Angeles. The neighborhood sits between two of LA's largest rival gangs. But Ciara Grigsby was no gang member.
LAPD South Bureau Homicide Detective Robert Bourbois said the scene where, two years earlier, NewsChopper4 hovered above as investigators below began the grim task of piecing this all together. A surveillance video they have from the incident may be the strongest piece of evidence yet.
Detectives hope someone might recognize the man and woman from the video who approached Ciara and her companion on foot.
"Female suspect says to Ciara, where you from," Bourbois said.
It's a common gang challenge, that often ends with gunfire. And this night was no exception.
"I cry every day, on my way home, on my way to work. And it took me a long time to come into this house because this is where we lived," Collier said.
If the suspects thought they'd get away with just affecting one life, they were wrong.
"For her not to be here, like, it puts me on a whole other level. I don't think my life will ever, ever be the same because when I lost her, I lost a piece of my heart too, it changed me as an individual. I don't look at things the way I used to, the things that used to matter to me honestly don't even matter. I would give anything in the world to hug my daughter, to have a conversation with her. I would do anything anybody asks me to, just to have my baby," Collier said.
There is a $50,000 reward for information in this case. And police aren't naive to the fact that many in the neighborhood might worry about retaliation.
"We understand that and we know how to deal with that," Bourbois said. But tonight's plea is much bigger than just closing this one case.
"Yes, this may be gang violence here but if we don't take a step forward then we'll just continue the cycle in neighborhoods like this," Bourbois said.
