Running out onto Linwood Street, James Martindale then made the shocking discovery. His friend Patricia Wilson was mortally wounded. "It was very shocking to see the gunshot wounds...It hurts me very much right now."
Near where Patricia Wilson lay dying, her friends and neighbors have set up a memorial with flowers and candles. In her memory they hope she rests in peace.
The 55-year-old grandmother was living in a second floor apartment. Neighbors say she was returning from visiting a friend across the street when she was shot on the sidewalk just outside her home.
"It is a shock, because she is a very nice lady. She was to everybody on the entire block," said Henry Martindale, her other friend.
Martindale, a friend and neighbor says that Ms. Wilson would help anyone. Others say she loved to sing in her church choir.
"I know her to be that kind of person. She would help the people on the block. She's very kind," said neighbor Bernadine Parris.
Police sources tell Eyewitness News they have talked with Patricia Wilson's landlord, with whom neighbors say she had a dispute.
In the grief of this moment though, they cling to each other struggling to understand the senseless nature of her murder.
It's the tragic death of someone who was there to help her friends.
"She has been very good to me since I have known her over the past 10 or 15 years. She has always been a good friend to me," adds Martindale.