HYATTSVILLE, Md. — Exactly one year after 18-year-old Cierra Young was killed in a shooting, her mother is still waiting for justice.
LaShawn Young spent Valentine's Day visiting the gravesite of her daughter at National Harmony Memorial Park in Hyattsville. She decorated her daughter's headstone with Valentine's Day decor with help from her best friend and family members.
"She really enjoyed Valentine's Day, so it hurts me because she's not here anymore and that she died on that day," LaShawn Young said. "I just wanted to decorate it so that she knows she's loved. I still cannot believe it. It doesn't seem real."
Cierra Young was picked up by a friend from her home in District Heights. Her mother received a call later that night after police responded to a call of a crash in the 3300 block of Pennsylvania Avenue in Southeast and found her on the ground with a gunshot wound.
Investigators said the 18-year-old was a passenger in the car when she was hit. LaShawn Young said according to detectives, road rage was to blame and her daughter was not the intended target. Information on who picked Cierra up is still not known.
DC Police released information on a "car of interest" they are searching for in connection to the murder. They are searching for a white Mercedes-Benz with "heavily-tinted windows."
LaShawn Young said there have been no arrests or updates in the case. She plans to work with police to hand out flyers to plead for information in about two weeks near the same intersection where the vehicle crashed.
"Just come forward because it hurts," LaShawn Young said. "You took an innocent kid who was just starting her life. Somebody knows something and somebody saw something so if that's the case, come forward."
Cierra Young was a senior at Theodore Roosevelt High School when she was killed and was hoping to graduate in 2021, taking time off because of how tough it was to be in school during the height of the pandemic.
She worked at a steakhouse in Largo for a period of time with her mother. Cierra Young also had aspirations to start her own clothing line, and had created t-shirts named "Evol," which was a message reminding us that we live in an evil world.
Her death was one of 227 homicides in DC in 2021, the highest in nearly 20 years.