Man arrested in fatal shooting of woman in South Jamaica
SOUTH JAMAICA, N.Y. (WABC) -- Police have arrested a man in connection with the death of a 70-year-old woman who answered her door and was shot to death in South Jamaica.
Julian Douglas, 22, of Queens has been charged with murder in the second degree and a weapons charge.
According to the New York City Police Department, around 1:39 a.m. March 31, Leta Webb answered the door at her 119th Avenue home and was shot twice, hit in the head and left arm. She was rushed to Jamaica Hospital where she died.
"She knew how to live," said Webb's son Benny. "I have no words for the person who do this."
"If I had got there first, I would have got shot," said Webb's son-in-law, Kevin McDowell, who was home at the time of the shooting.
McDowell was upstairs and heard the commotion around 1:30 a.m., thinking it was strange.
"They wanted somebody in that house to die, I believe that with all of me," said the victim's daughter Eva Usher.
"Nobody goes to that front door, not even UPS or FED EX, everybody goes to the side door," McDowell said. ('So you thought it was strange') "Yes, when I heard banging, I was half asleep and said, who's banging on the door?," he said.
The murder turned the close-knit community upside down. Leta had lived in the home since 1970.
"From the garbage men to everyone, everyone loved her cause she was a sweet person, she looked out for everybody," said McDowell.
Leta adopted Benny when he was just 8 months old. What stands out in his mind, he says, is "How she raised me and what I am, what we all are."
Eva had begged her mother to leave the house, saying there had been problems in the past.
Leta also adopted Arnold Webb, who is currently in prison for manslaughter and is affiliated with a gang.
Sources tell Eyewitness News, one theory detectives are looking into is payback, whether rumblings behind bars spilled over onto the front stoop.
"They retaliated on my mother, it could have been anyone who opened that door, it just happened to be her," said Eva.
