Young mother shot, dies after argument at liquor store

DETROIT (WJBK) - An argument at a Detroit liquor store ended with the death of a young mother, caught in the gunfire. Loved ones gathered to remember Ashley Holloway at a vigil Saturday.

"Whoever knows what happened, please take care of me. Help me. She didn't deserve this," pleaded Ashley's mother, Carolyn Watkins, while holding a handful of balloons and an umbrella at the vigil. Loved ones said it was like the heavens were crying. 

The shooting happened the evening of Wednesday, June 1, outside Paradise Food and Liquor off Joy Road, near Evergreen Road. Police say the shooting stemmed from an argument here between Holloway, her male companion and another group. Holloway and her friend drove away, but the group followed them in a Ford Taurus.

A few blocks away, at the corner of Patton and Belton streets, shots were fired into the vehicle Holloway was in. One of the bullets struck Holloway in the head.

"I really don't know the details on what happened. I just know she was killed for no reason, and it was just senseless. She didn't have nothing to do with anything. She was innocent," says Ashley's cousin Tasha Clements.

The family decided to take Ashley off life support on Saturday.

"It was a big blow to us. Something got to be done about all these guys running around out here shooting up cars out here and don't care who's in the car," said her father, Kenneth Holloway. "All we're getting right now is a lot of black-on-black crime. We holler about black lives matter when other folks do something to us; [does] it matter when we do stuff to each other? My daughter's life has been taken from her at 27."

"We talk about all the harm to black men, but we're killing each other at an astronomical rate. It ain't about what other people to do us, it's about what we do to ourselves," said family friend Anthony Best.

"Y'all stop killing up one another. Why don't you love each other? It's senseless killing. It's no need for that; please stop it," Ashley's mother said.

Ashley leaves behind a 7-year-old son.

It is not known at this time what the argument was about, or if Ashley and her companion knew the people they were arguing with. Detroit police continue to investigate.

They don't have much to go on right now. No suspects in custody and police don't have any descriptions. If you have any information, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP.