VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Laquita Brown’s father, Dwight, was over his friend’s house Friday night to celebrate his birthday.
He and his friend turned on the television and watched the tragic events of the Virginia Beach Municipal Center shooting that left 12 people dead unfold.
It wasn’t until Dwight’s son called him that he knew just how tragic the massacre was.
“Pops I got some bad news for you, ahh Laquita…she’s been shot,” his son said on the phone.
Dwight thought he could find her at a nearby hospital. “I don’t know a lot of details, but she was never there or at any hospital. She never left the building.”
His 39-year-old daughter was shot and killed in Building 2 at the center by the gunman who police say killed 11 others on that horrific day.
“She was my pumpkin. She hated when I called her pumpkin in these older years. That’s my everything. My hands were the first hands to ever touch her at birth,” said Dwight.
He says Laquita was a reincarnated Mother Theresa. She was fluent in three languages. She made it her mission to help others, particularly in times of devastation — an irony not lost on the loved ones she has left behind.
Thanks to our news partner WAVY TV-10 for their reporting on this story.