CHARLOTTE — A woman was shot and killed Wednesday morning during a random robbery in University City.
Karen Baker’s sons said they not only want their mom’s killer captured, but they also want everyone to know what she meant to them.
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“My mom didn’t deserve this,” her son, Michael McClure, said.
Investigators said Baker, 48, was robbed and killed in the parking lot of the 7-Eleven near John Kirk Drive and Old Concord Road at about 5:45 a.m.
“We’re empty without her. I mean I feel empty,” her son, Will McClure, said.
Baker’s family said she was getting money from an ATM when it happened.
In a message for anyone who may be watching, Michael McClure said, “If you have kids, grandkids, brothers, sisters, daughters -- anybody you care about, if you can reach out and hug them, hug them.”
Baker’s sons said the emptiness they are feeling is difficult to explain.
“My mom would move mountains for a stranger,” Will McClure, said. “She was such a good mom, a good grandmother. She was the matriarch of this family.”
“We’ve always had our mom to call on,” Michael McClure said. “Even when she wasn’t around, she was there. That was my best friend.”
Will McClure added, “Mine too.”
Their goal is to honor her life -- starting with justice.
“And I hope that one day, it may not be today -- it may not be tomorrow, but I just hope that justice will be served,” Michael McClure said.
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“They didn’t just take my mom’s life. They took hundreds and thousands of lives. She touched so many people,” Will McClure said.