Sleeping woman killed when bullets fly through Gastonia home, family says

GASTONIA, N.C. — Someone fired dozens of shots into a Gastonia home late Monday night, killing a woman inside.

It happened just before midnight on Morgan Street, not far off Union Road. Channel 9′s Ken Lemon learned half a dozen kids were inside at the time but fortunately, they weren’t hurt.

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The woman’s family and friends said it was 39-year-old Latasha Cureton who died. Now, police are looking for answers, along with her family.

The family said everyone is torn up about Cureton, who was also a mother. They said she was sleeping in her bed when the shooting started. A bullet went into her bedroom window, killing her.

Lemon spoke with Cureton’s mother, who was home when the shooting started. She said they were watching a movie with her grandchildren when they heard what they thought were fireworks.

Eventually, they realized what they were hearing were bullets pelting the house.

The one in the window pane is one of the scores of bullet holes family members showed Lemon. One shot went into a child’s playpen, and another went through a sofa where the family was watching that movie.

She said right after the shooting, Cureton’s 15-year-old son went to check on her. He said his mother said, ‘I’m hit,’ and then she died.

Cureton’s mother said she was her best friend, and she didn’t know why someone would do this, but she pleaded with the shooter to turn themselves in.

“They were wrong. They took my daughter when she didn’t do anything to them,” Cureton’s mother explained.

There were 13 shots into or through the front door. You can look through the holes and see outside.

A family friend said there was nowhere that was safe in the home when the shooting started.

“Anybody has to know that there’s a lot of children that live in this house,” Keith Rice said. “And for somebody to shoot so many times, or even just to shoot in the house, is ridiculous. These people are godless.”

Officers are going door-to-door blocks away from where the shooting happened, hoping to find anyone who may have seen, heard, or recorded something helpful.

A family’s struggle

Rosalie Hardy, the victim’s mother, told Channel 9′s Ken Lemon that she’s now caring for her grandchildren while living on Social Security.

On Thursday, Hardy spoke with Lemon inside the house, with bullet holes in the sofa we sat on and in the wall above her head.

“This is the longest I’ve stayed since it happened,” Hardy said.

Hardy said she avoids the room where her daughter died. She’s been to the door, but can’t bring herself to go inside.

She says in the wake of the shooting, things look bad.

“I don’t know how we are going to make it,” Hardy said.

She’s raising Cureton’s 14-year-old and 15-year-old sons, making eight grandchildren in her care.

“I can’t do it by myself off of my Social Security check,” Hardy said.

She said she needs money for the last thing she ever wanted to do.

“I don’t want to say goodbye, but now I know I have to,” Hardy said.

After all that the family’s been through, with no arrests yet, Cureton needs a proper funeral. But she didn’t have life insurance.

“It’s 100 percent important to me to know that she is being put away nicely,” Hardy said.

The family has started a Gofundme page, and some family and friends are working to help.

Hardy says she needs all the help she can get.

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