Six years ago, a young mother was shot dead while she was doing Christmas shopping with her two-year-old son. As they were caught in the crossfire of a gunfight, the dying mother used her body to protect her little one.
This incident took place during the 2010 Christmas season at a local Sacramento shopping mall’s parking lot, where Monique Nelson, who had just strapped her son into the car seat, was hit by a stray bullet in the chest.
As the shoot out took place, she immediately threw herself on her son Jayden to protect him, but she succumbed to a stray bullet and died on the spot.
Recently Monique’s mother, Deborah Nelson, wrote a heart-touching letter in the memory of her dead daughter. Her letter was published on
She wrote: “When Monique made up her mind to do something, she did it. And she epitomized courage. Some people believe that having courage means simply to be fearless, but, to me, courage means you accept that some things are more important than fear. That’s exactly the kind of courage Monique had on December 14, 2010.”
Deborah, who now actively speaks against gun violence, wrote in her letter that more than 30 bullets were fired from a variety of high-powered guns, including an AK-47 semi-automatic rifle.
“When the smoke cleared, my innocent daughter lay dying on top of her young son—her heart pierced by a single bullet.”
“According to the police, had she not thrown herself on top of Jayden, she most likely would be alive and he would have been shot instead. My baby made the ultimate sacrifice to save her baby’s life,” she wrote.
She shared that she gets really upset when people say that her daughter was in “was at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“It was daytime, and she was not in a high-crime area. Monique and her son were doing what Americans should be able to do without the fear of being gunned down. She could have never predicted nor avoided the horrible fate that awaited her.”
“The truth is, gun violence does not discriminate. It can happen at any time, any place,” Deborah wrote. She said that it took about five years for her to emerge from the depression of her daughter’s death.
“Today, I’m keeping Monique’s memory alive by sharing her story and fighting in her name. I will never accept that she was just in “the wrong place at the wrong time,” and neither should anyone else who has had a loved one taken in such a senseless and preventable way,” she wrote in her open letter.
Can there be peace and harmony with so many senseless shooting incidences, putting countless lives at risk? Such cruel incidences leave children orphaned and killing caretakers of elderly parents. This is a sign of savagery, and no respect for a human life.
Deborah Nelson mother of Monique, has been trying to bring awareness against gun violence, in a hope to bring about a change in today’s barbaric society where senseless shootouts begin any moment.
Her letter concludes, “One day, I hope my grandson will fully understand how much his mother loved him and how much she was loved by others. For him and for future generations, I will never stop fighting for an America free from gun violence.”
This story is based on the letter published on
