Jessica White, Bronx mother of three sacrificed her life to save her children from indiscriminate shots of rampaging gunman
Jessica White, a mother-of-three, gave up her life in a final bid to protect her kids
Jessica White, 29, mother of three, saw gunman in ski mask start shooting at gangsters sitting near her kids in a Bronx park, NY
Got up, threw herself in the path of shots to shield her kids.
Hit her in the heart, went down screaming “Mommy! The kids! ” to her mother, nearby
Jessica was 3rd child of her mother, Gola White, gunned down in same housing project
Gola White (Second right) in black bandana, Jessica’s mother, lost a third child to gun violence in the neighborhood
According to Gola White, her daughter Jessica’s dying wish, Saturday night was to somehow spare her children. “Mommy! ” she said. “The kids!’”
Her daughter, she said, cried that she had to “go get the kids.”
Jessica White, 29, a Bronx mother-of-three, gave up her life in a final, desperate effort to shield her three young children from gunfire. She was shot dead when she stepped into the path of a bullet tearing through a park outside their apartment building Saturday night, during a suspected gang related shooting
When Jessica saw a man dressed in black open fire into the playground at the John Adams Houses in Longwood around 10:15 p.m., the panicked mom jumped up and took a bullet right below her heart. The events unfolded in front of her own mother, Gola, who watched in horror as she lost her third offspring to a shooting death in the same housing project.
White’s final, frantic wish was to somehow spare her children.
“She said, ‘Mommy! The kids!’ ” Gola White said Saturday night.
Her daughter, she said, cried that she had to “go get the kids.”
Then, Gola White said, “My daughter got up and hit the ground.”
Detectives investigating at the scene suspect the violence stemmed from a gang fight. The gunman was described as wearing a ski mask when he approached the park.
Her inconsolable mother said she was sitting on a park bench next to Jessica inside the public housing complex on Westchester Ave. the gunman suddenly appeared and opened fire, apparently targeting a group of men sitting nearby in the playground, she said.
But it was her innocent daughter who got hit.
“I believe that the bullets were for them, but bullets don’t have no name, bullets don’t have no direction, so of course when my daughter stood up she got hit, under her heart. And she’s gone,” Gola White said.
She said she had been laughing and joking with her daughter just moments before the shooting. Her three grandkids had been playing in the park on a warm spring night.
“My daughter was an innocent mother sitting out here while her kids were playing in the park,” Gola said.
Gola White comforted by family and friends at the scene where Jessica was shot
“Never did nothing to nobody. Just got off of work today. Just sitting out here to let the kids get a little bit of air and this is what happens.”
She said Jessica was her third child killed at the housing project.
Cops were looking for the shooter and probing just who he was targeting. police sources said.
The victim’s grieving mother said that after her daughter was shot, she scooped up her three grandkids and took them inside.
Gola White’s two sons then ran outside and performed CPR on Jessica, but to no avail. She was taken to Lincoln Hospital but could not be saved, officials said.
“My daughter’s not coming back. She’s not coming back. Who’s gonna pay for my daughter’s death right now?” Gola White said.
“This is not my first,” she said. “I lost three kids here. I lost three kids.”
Another relative said she was puzzled at how the mother was brought down by gunfire. “She wasn’t into drama,” she said.
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