AUSTIN (KXAN) — Dozens of family members and friends came together Saturday to honor Ebony Sheppard — a mother who police say was randomly murdered during a robbery spree the day after Christmas.
A vigil was held at Vision of Hope AME Church at 4711 Delores Ave. where Sheppard worshiped.
Xavier Lewis, 19, was arrested Thursday by the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force. He is charged with five counts of aggravated robbery and one count of capital murder. Police say he randomly robbed several people this week before gunning down Sheppard in a parking lot.
“It’s going to be hard, especially because of little man,” Sheppard’s mother, Janet Johns said, looking to her daughter’s 4-year-old son. “He told me, ‘Mom’s OK. She’s in my heart.’ So I left it at that because I know that he knows something.”
To Johns, Sheppard was the world. She shared details about what made Ebony, Ebony.
“Ebony was the sweetest person ever,” she said. “She loved horror movies, every year she was at the horror convention in Dallas.”
Sheppard’s aunt, Andrea Brown, had this to say: “If I could say one person that everybody knows that could identify with Ebony, was Tinkerbell. She was just high-spirited, and she, everybody she touched.”
Johns agreed, adding, “She spread her magic.”
Sheppard was a mother. Sister. Friend. Daughter. Someone Johns says, is still managing to comfort her from above.
“I keep getting this really good feeling, this happy feeling, like, ‘Mom, I’m happy. I’m finally happy,’ Johns said. “And I don’t know, I just keep getting this feeling, some feeling I can’t explain. But she’s happy.”
Bringing a sense of peace, to make things even just a little easier.
“The noise I heard … I will never forget. Never,” Johns said, thinking back to the night her daughter shot and killed.
But with family by her side and God holding her up, Johns said at the vigil, “I’m gonna make it.”
Sheppard will be laid to rest next Saturday. Her family started a fund to help with funeral costs and to help her son. Sheppard’s mother says she plans to forgive the suspect but wants justice. And for him to “sit for a long, long time and think about what he did.”
There another life impacted, just a matter of blocks away from where Sheppard was killed. Christmas night, another woman was carjacked at gunpoint and handed over her phone and car. KXAN spoke with a family member of the victim, who said they want to keep the focus on Sheppard. He said the neighborhood is still a safe one but wants people to be aware.
“I just can’t see why anybody would do something like that in the neighborhood. Especially being on bond, having an ankle monitor on. You know, I’m really sorry for the other families that this had to happen to. I’m just blessed that she’s the only one who didn’t get hurt.”
“I just want him to know, that little spree he went on – grave mistake. He hurt too many people. Too many people. And for nothing, ” Johns said, shaking her head. “For absolutely nothing.”
https://kxan.com/2017/12/31/vigil-held-for-robbery-spree-murder-victim/
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