In the quiet, early morning hours of a late March day in South Jamaica, Queens, a frantic knocking shattered the peace at the home of 71-year-old Leta Webb. It was around 1:30 a.m. when the beloved grandmother answered the insistent summons at her door. In an instant, the ordinary moment turned tragic as gunshots rang out, and Webb was struck in the head and left arm. Her son-in-law, Kevin McDowell, who was asleep in the house, was jolted awake by the commotion.
He recalled hearing the frantic knocking followed by four or five gunshots. Rushing downstairs, he was met with a horrifying scene: Leta Webb, a woman known for her kindness and dedication to helping others, was lying on her porch in a pool of blood. She was rushed to Jamaica Hospital but succumbed to her injuries a few hours later.
The initial shock of the violent act quickly gave way to a search for answers. Webb's family and the police did not believe she was the intended target of the shooting. Instead, they theorized that the house itself was the target of a grim retaliation. Webb's daughter, Eva Usher, spoke of ongoing troubles connected to some of the children her mother had adopted. She believed the shooting was a misguided act of vengeance, stating, 'It could've been anybody that opened the door. It just happened to be her.' Usher specifically mentioned that the issues were related to gang activity, involving the Bloods and Crips, and stemmed from problems connected to one of Webb's adopted sons who was incarcerated for murder. The gunman, who fled the scene immediately after the shooting, was thought to have intimate knowledge of the neighborhood, disappearing down a path only a local would know.
The investigation into the senseless killing of the cherished grandmother moved forward, and in late April 2015, a breakthrough was announced. The New York City Police Department arrested 22-year-old Julian Douglas in connection with the murder. He was subsequently charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon, bringing a measure of hope for justice to a grieving family and a shaken community. The arrest underscored the tragic randomness of the violence that claimed the life of a woman remembered by her neighbors and loved ones as a friendly and caring matriarch who had lived in her home for 45 years.
