FORT LAUDERDALE — It was just after 7 p.m. and still light out. A few people stood outside a corner store, gazing out at the quiet Monday scene; another few sat across the street, under a palm tree.
Then a silver car drove by, opened its doors, and unleashed a barrage of gunfire at the group near the palm tree, killing a man and a woman, leaving her 2-year-old son in a coma, and injuring two others.
Tiarra Holliday, 28, and Sheldon Lawrence, 45, were killed in the drive-by shooting in the 700 block of Northwest 10th Terrace in Fort Lauderdale on Monday. Holliday’s 2-year-old son is now in a medically-induced coma. Her brother was also injured in the shooting, according to family members.
Holliday had shielded her son with her body, according to her family. Both ended up shot in the head.
“She loved her son with her whole soul,” Tiarra’s mother, Shontrelle Holliday, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
The 22-second video released Thursday, which Fort Lauderdale Police warned was graphic, depicts a quiet early evening suddenly interrupted. It was later taken down from YouTube.
In the video, the silver car drove by the store and rounded the corner, its front and back passenger side doors opening as it neared the group sitting under the tree before the blast of bullets in their direction. In a moment, the peaceful scene became frantic as people outside of the store rushed inside. A car that had been heading out behind the silver car sped away in the opposite direction. Meanwhile, people who were sitting under the tree crawled desperately in the dirt, trying to get away.
The shooting lasted about 10 seconds as the car slowly drove away. It was found abandoned soon after, according to police. No suspects have been identified.
Holliday had shielded her son with her own body when the shooting began, according to a GoFundMe shared by her family. They both were shot in the head. Still alive and wounded, Holliday had run into the convenience store before she collapsed and died. Her son was found, bloody, outside.
“Someone save my baby, get my baby,” witnesses had heard her scream, according to the fundraiser.
Holliday’s sister, Shakynah, wrote on Facebook Wednesday that she was in the bathroom when she heard the shots. When she got to the scene, she found her sister, shot.
“I got out the car and my worse nightmare happened infront of my eyes,” she wrote. “I saw my sister die infront of me.”
She ran to try to find her sister’s son. Then she called her mother, dialing the phone number wrong multiple times because she was so frantic.
“How do I call my mom and tell her that her oldest daughter is dead?” she wrote. “I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t think.”
In her post, she wondered if she should have stayed by her sister instead of looking for her son, tried to apply pressure to the wound.
Tiarra Holliday’s son, Deagoo, is now hospitalized in a medically induced coma. He has had to have surgery on his brain and leg, and will soon need another brain surgery, according to Holliday’s mother, Shontrelle. The family is raising money for both medical and funeral costs.
Holliday was the oldest sister of four. Dancing was her favorite hobby, her mother said. The morning after the shooting, she was supposed to start a new job.
Holliday was selfless, with a “unique love for family,” Shontrelle Holliday told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Thursday.
“She loved simplicity,” she said. “She was one of the most respectful children if not the most respectful child that I had.”
Since the shooting, Shontrelle Holliday has come out publicly to criticize the convenience store and ask for it to be shut down. The stretch of 10th Terrace between Eighth Street and Ninth Street, and specifically the corner store there, has long been the site of shootings and other crimes, she said. The neighborhood surrounding it is poverty-stricken, forcing families without cars to frequent the store.
“This has been the killing spot for many others,” Shontrelle Holliday said. She hopes city officials get involved.
On Wednesday, she wrote on Facebook, “To patronize the store on 10th Terrace is blasphemy! … The Medical Examiner recovered my daughter’s body at 1/2AM && by 6AM they had a breakfast buffet && was back to business.”
Holliday believes that the shooting was targeted, likely related to several other homicides in the area.
“You don’t just drive by and shoot up a store,” she said. “You’re not shooting up a crowd. This wasn’t a hate crime. This is really specific.”
Sheldon Lawrence, the man who was killed, had one daughter, according to social media and a GoFundMe.
His daughter, Karizma Harvey, recalled in a Facebook post how he had always wanted a son. One day, as the two were hanging out together, he looked at her and she asked him “what?”
“Maybe it was just meant for me to just have your super spoiled ass,” she recalled him saying, and they both laughed.
Anyone with information should contact Detective Jackie Sanchez at 954-828-5931, the Homicide Tipline at 954-828-6677, or remain anonymous and contact Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS.
