Family and friends are mourning the death of a McComb native who was killed in the Monday night robbery of a Dollar General store in a Dallas suburb.
Dallas-area media identified the victim as Gabrielle M. Simmons, 27, a mother of six who was getting off work around 7 p.m. at an Oak Cliff, Texas, Dollar General store when a man entered the business demanding money.
Surveillance video showed the gunman, a black male, entering the store wearing a teal baseball cap with a hologram sticker on it, along with a dark-colored hoodie, jeans with slash marks down both sides and black sneakers with thick, white soles.
Shoppers hid in the back of the store during the heist.
Investigators told reporters that the unidentified man pointed the gun at Simmons and demanded cash.
Simmons, who also goes by the name Monique Joseph, immediately complied and put the till in a blue-and-gray gym bag, but the robber shot her as he walked out.
Simmons died at a local hospital.
“Just to turn around and take her life, it's cruel. It's very cruel,” Pat Ford, who was a friend of Simmons who also works with Dallas Community Fellowship, a coalition of churches, told Fox 4 in Dallas. “It's cruel. It's evil.”
News of Simmons’ death soon spread to family and friends in McComb.
Her brother Christopher Simmons said his sister moved to Dallas looking for a positive change.
“My sister went to better her life and then this happens,” he wrote in a post on Facebook.
Simmons had just started working at the Dollar General, he said.
Her fiance Aris Joseph told Dallas media that her children range in ages of 7 months old to 11.
“Words just really can't explain it, man … What I feel,” Joseph told Fox 4 News. “I have a 7-month-old girl. He's 10. I have a 6-year-old, a 7-year-old and the oldest is 11.”
Joseph told Fox 4 that he’s overwhelmed by the idea of raising all six children alone, but said he’s been supported by family, friends and churches.
“Phones won't stop ringing. Family and friends been around since they heard about it,” he said. “A lot of people came to the house. I never been through anything like this before."
Family and friends in McComb are reaching out to do what they can to help. A clothing drive organized by La’Verne Quinn-Carter is taking place through Dec. 11. Donations can be dropped off at Salvation Army, 4138 Highway 51 South, McComb. Those dropping off donations should ask for Quinn-Carter, who is a social worker at the Salvation Army.
Needed items include boys clothes in sizes 8/10, 10/12 and 14/16 in shirts, 8, 10 and 14 in pants and sizes 1 and 5 1/2 in shoes; girls clothes in sizes 6 in shirts and pants and 1 in shoes; boys clothes sized 4t and 9 for toddlers shoes; and girls clothing for infants 6 to 9 months.
Additionally, a GoFundMe account set up to help pay for Simmons’ funeral and living expenses has raised $7,166 of its $10,000 goal as of this morning.
Those who wish to donate can do so at www.gofundme.com/kids-and-funeral-expenses.
