Monique & Jayden Most mothers know they would stop a bullet for their child, but Monique Nelson of Sacramento actually did. Now her toddler Jayden will be spending Christmas without his mother, who died shielding her son from gunfire that surrounded them as she buckled the little boy into his car seat in a parking lot.
Not the kind of story you want to hear around the holidays, but the holidays is precisely the reason Monique Nelson and her 2-year-old son wound up in the middle of a gun battle.
The young mom took her toddler to get a Christmas portrait taken at a local strip mall, and the photos of mother and child turned out beautifully. Minutes later Nelson was dead, caught in the middle of what appears to be gang violence.
Monique's family describes her as a doting mother, who clearly placed her son ahead of herself. So much so that the police found her dead body lying across her son's lap after four gunmen left the scene.
Nelson wasn't the only victim of a battle that centered around a barber shop in the strip mall. Marvion Barksdale, a 20-year-old with a criminal history, was also killed, and five others were wounded inside Fly Cuts & Styles.
For anyone who thinks gang violence isn't their problem, because you don't know anyone in a gang, think of Monique and her little boy Jayden who will grow up without a mother because the pair happened to be getting a Christmas portrait taken at the wrong strip mall at the wrong time.
Whoever took this little boy's mother away should receive a special kind of punishment, if they ever catch him. But right now, uncooperative witnesses aren't talking.
Wouldn't you do the same thing for your child?
Image via Sacramento Bee
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Comments 125
So sad....I live about 20 mins from there too. :(
Gang members are pathetic losers. I mean...come on. If you're going to kill people, at least walk up to them and do it. Only a bunch of wussies fire through innocent people to TRY and kill their enemies. The act all tough because they KNOW they aren't actually tough.
I would without a doubt die for my children. I would sacrifice my life to preserve theirs. This is the saddest thing I have read and I had tears in my eyes. I cannot believe how panty-waiste these gang members are. That poor lady and her poor poor son who will never be with his mother again. This is just so sad...
this so so heartbreaking. i will pray for this little boy =(
So sad.
A similar situation just happened here is Billings, MT. A mother of a 2 and 4 yr old is in critical condition after being shot in the head, when her BF started a gun fight with another man while all of them were in the car. He should be charged with murder if she dies and definitely child neglect no matter what.
That is so terrible. :(
Of course i would do anything to keep my son safe, even if it meant my own life. I pray that never happens.
I would have done the same thing in a heart beat!! That is just sad. My thoughts are with the family. One good thing is that little boy will KNOW how much his mother loved him.
While I pray that it would never happen, and I would do anything to prevent it as I wouldn't want my kids to grow up without a mother...I would aboslutely take a bullet or anything else if it would spare their lives. This story is tragic and I can't imagine the pain the families must be going through and the pain that boy little boy will feel as he gets older. At least he will know she loved him dearly.