CEDAR PARK, Texas — There is a new reality Akira Ross' father, Anthony Hill, and her grandmother, Carolyn Hartman, are coming to terms with.
"It's just, you can't imagine not seeing your child no more. The smile she had on her face and just the kind of person she was, everybody she came in contact with just instantly loved her," Hill said.
"She loved people, and she had her way of showing her love to people," Hartman said.
Hill lost his 24-year-old daughter after a shooting in Cedar Park on Friday night. It happened at the Circle K off FM 620 and Hatch Road just before 10 p.m.
Twenty-three-year-old Bradley Stanford is charged with murder. Police say he and Ross had a verbal exchange in the parking lot outside Ross' car before Stanford shot her and drove away.
"She never knew that man. So she was hated on, you know, and we don't know why. But we just want justice to be served," Hill said. "She was just trying to make it home. She didn't want no trouble with nobody."
While the suspect is still in custody with an ongoing homicide investigation, Hill said what remains is a tragedy – the death of a daughter with a lot of life left to live.
"But to get a call to say your child is dead, that's it. That's like swallowing a razor blade," Hill said. "It's unimaginable, unthinkable, inhumane to have to leave this earth like that."
Police arrested Stanford near Corpus Christi on Sunday night. He was booked into the Williamson County Jail on Wednesday.