The mother of a woman fatally shot by Virginia Beach police on Saturday says her daughter was not armed and the shooting was unjustified.
Gina Best of Columbia, Maryland, said Tuesday that her daughter, 28-year-old India Kager of College Park, Maryland, had been in Virginia Beach only a couple of hours before the shooting occurred.
"She was unarmed. She was completely innocent. They shot indiscriminately" Best told the Associated Press in a phone interview.
The police department says Kager and 35-year-old Angelo Delano Perry, of Virginia Beach, died at the scene following an exchange of gunfire with officers late Saturday night outside a convenience store.
The officers had received information about a person of interest in a homicide, police said. As they approached a vehicle outside the store, someone in the car fired at them. It's not clear who fired the shots.
The officers returned fire, killing Perry and Kager.
Kager's 4-month-old son was inside the vehicle and wasn't injured. He was was placed in the care of Child Protective Services.
"I have to refer to my baby in the past tense. That absolutely sends my psyche into a realm of darkness that I never wanted to experience," Best said.
Kager had served in the Navy as a culinary specialist from 2009 to 2013 in Virginia Beach and in Pensacola, Florida, and was awarded a good conduct medal, the Navy said. Best said her daughter recently got a job as a postal carrier in the Washington, D.C., area.
Kager played several musical instruments, and her father and grandfather are both retired police officers, she said.
