WASHINGTON — There has been an outpouring of support for the family of a D.C. mom who was shot and killed in front of her eight-year-old son and her sister while they were in their car Wednesday, on their way to a kids' birthday party.
Donations are flooding into a GoFundMe set up for them by another gun violence victim. Alex Fleming said she feels a painful kinship with the family.
Pamela Thomas, 54, was shot in the head Wednesday afternoon by a round that exploded through the back window of their car. Her son, Rufus, said he ducked as the bullet sliced through his hair before hitting and killing his mom.
He jumped out of the car screaming, his mother's blood soaking his clothes.
Police say someone was shooting at someone else in the 600 block of Division Ave. NE. The killer is still at large.
Fleming, who reached out to help the family, was shot twice in the chest on Nov. 23 last year while walking near the Columbia Heights Metro Station. Fleming reached out to Rufus and his aunt, Marilyn Walker, who both survived the Division Ave. shooting.
"When I was in the ICU and I saw my mom, everything changed," Fleming said, a smile lighting her face as she recalled the moment. "And for him not to have that love anymore is... irreplaceable... I just want that family to know they have love surrounding them too. And they have a community too."
Rufus, a third-grader, has already survived a lifetime's worth of tragedy. Even before his mother was murdered, his biological and his stepdad died, all within the last year.
He didn't cry as he described his mom's murder.
"I ducked right down. The bullet flew right past my head, through my hair. And it shot my mom. Once I seen that, I jumped out of the car," he said, sitting in the cramped living room of his aunt's house in District Heights, Marilyn Walker sobbing next to him.
"He got out of the back seat and said, 'They shot my mom, they shot my mom!' And I ran around there and I looked at her. And she was slumped over... She was slumped over on her seat," she said, calmly at first, and then breaking down in tears.
Rufus says he's had nightmares since he moved to the apartment on 54th St. NE, just a few blocks from the shooting scene.
"Like people shooting. My mom getting killed. My dad getting killed. Me getting killed," he said, describing the horrible dreams.
It was always his mom who would comfort him.
"She told me a story when I had a nightmare. Every time I wake up, she gives me cereal," he said, softly. He says he misses her -- "infinitely!"
Fleming says she felt an overwhelming urge to reach out to the family, to shower them with love. The GoFundMe was one of the few things she could think of.
"That's one thing now. And it took me literally ten seconds," she said.
As of Friday afternoon, 81 people had donated more than $5,000 toward a $10,000 goal.
"There's a community behind him, who will be there," Fleming said. "And we'll never be his mom, But he's not alone."
Asked if he was going to be ok, Rufus said quietly, "I think so."