Houston police are scouring social media posts in the homicide investigation of a young mother killed hours before her birthday.
LeKendra Childs, 19, was fatally shot on Sept. 13 during a drive-by shooting after a passenger in a black Chevrolet Camaro fired five shots into her second-floor apartment, police said.
Childs was pronounced dead at the scene, leaving behind a 2-year-old daughter.
While investigators have not named any suspects, social media users speculated that Child’s boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend is involved in the murder.
According to Facebook user Quoyaa Taylor, the ex-girlfriend, whose name is “linglingbaby“ on Twitter, sought revenge against Childs after the two were involved in a physical fight.
“Kendra whooped this girl so she plotted on her and brought the tool out. this [expletive] grime #RIPKENDRA,” Taylor alleges in a Facebook post.
The hashtag #RIPKENDRA was trending online.
Taylor also wrote in another post: “How do you kill somebody this pretty behind a [expletive]? You shot her dead in her head, [expletive] is not that serious for you to be sitting behind bars, because that [expletive] not gone write you or nothing karma is a [expletive] and best believe you gone get yours!”
In another Facebook post, Taylor made a collage of threatening tweets that was allegedly written by the ex-girlfriend.
“Nothing makes me mad about a [expletive] saying she was with my [expletive] or whatever cause like I tell him..the [expletive] won’t be around for too long,” read one of the tweets posted on Aug. 11.
A tweet posted in June read: “My plan is to plot for a year…And I’m gone kill them people. Idgaf if the [police] see this.”
In January another tweet read: “I think I’m really evil enough to eat a [expletive] alive! Like [expletive] Idgaf about you…I'll real life kill you and eat you [expletive]! [expletive] you.”
The tweets have caught the attention of the police department.
“We are aware of the social media posts and, just like in any other murder investigation, our officers will follow up on any leads and continue to work the investigation,” Victor Sentries, public affairs spokesman, told Epoch Times in an email.
Child’s death has sent family members reeling and in search of answers.
“I feel very broken, and it just hurts because she didn’t deserve to go like this. I understand it was her time, but she didn’t have to go like this. She didn’t even make it to her birthday tomorrow,” Angel Whitaker, Childs’s cousin told KTRK-TV.
Childs had posted a series of tweets yesterday in excitement of her birthday writing, “I turn 20 tomorrow” with a smiling face emoji. She also posted a video of herself and friends dancing to music, accompanied with the caption: “It’s our birthday y'all mind if we wild out.”
Whitaker added, “Whoever did this, they were wrong and we will get justice for her.”
Anyone with information in this case is urged to contact the HPD Homicide Division at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.
