PHOENIX — On the day 7-year-old Latreese Moten was going to celebrate her sister’s fifth birthday, she died shielding her sibling from bullets during a drive-by shooting.
Latreese, or Lay Lay as her family called her, was just five days from turning 8 years old.
“Words can’t express how I’m feeling right now for my daughter,” said Chereese Kincherlow, the little girl’s mother with tears rolling down her face.
“My daughter was a beautiful little girl, everybody loved her.”
Lay Lay was a girly girl all around. She loved to dance, play with make-up, do her mother’s hair, and even taught herself gymnastics and ballet tricks.
“My baby didn’t deserve this, my baby was innocent. She was at a park earlier that day talking about what she wanted to do for her birthday that’s on Monday,” Chereese said. “Now my baby is not here because somebody was so stupid.”
Glendale police said the shooting happened shortly after midnight on Thursday near 65th Avenue and Bethany Home Road.
It all began when Chereese's friend and a suspect identified as 29-year-old Terrance Armstrong got into an argument outside A1 Food and Liquor Store, authorities said.
Lay Lay’s mother went to pick up her friend and she arrived shortly after the argument and pulled into the store’s parking lot. Both of her daughters were in the back seat of her car.
After the argument, Armstrong left the parking lot and headed east on Bethany Home Road, but he turned south of 65th Avenue, court documents said.
As the family drove by that intersection, their car was hit with a bullet, records show. Armstrong followed the car and shot at them again.
Latreese was hit multiple times. Her mother drove her to Maryvale Hospital, but doctors could not save her.
“My baby got shot so many times because she laid on top of her little sister, she laid on top of her sister to protect her,” Chereese said. “My sweet girl is gone, nothing in this world could ever replace what he took from me.”
Hours after the shooting, detectives identified and arrested Armstrong as the suspect.
Armstrong has a prior conviction for voluntary manslaughter from Tennessee, multiple arrests for drug sales, and tampering with evidence, according to court records.
Authorities said Armstrong was fleeing with luggage in a Lyft when he was arrested. He was found with 3,000 fentanyl pills.
“I want to tell him ‘you took my heart and you crumbled it and you don’t even know me or my daughter. It wasn’t right what you did, but I’m going to get justice," Lay Lay’s mother said. “That’s what I want him to know, she will get justice.”
The family is now holding on to the memories of things Latreese taught herself and the mark she left on them.
“Latreese wouldn’t want me to be sad,” her mother said. “My baby would have said, ‘mommy it’s okay, I still love you.' I just wish that the bullets would have hit me and not my baby.”
If you would like to help, the family has set up a GoFundMe account to help with funeral expenses.
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