In a senseless act of gun violence that has shattered a young family’s future, 22-year-old Ah’don Richardson was killed in a shooting just two days after he and his pregnant girlfriend learned they were expecting their first child, a son. Richardson, a skilled carpenter with big dreams of opening his own business and building a family home, never got the chance to meet the child he was already preparing to raise.
Launise Guerrier, Richardson’s 25-year-old girlfriend who is 22 weeks into a high-risk pregnancy, shared that the couple left their gender scan overjoyed on Saturday. When she broke the news that they were having a boy, Guerrier said Richardson could barely contain his excitement. He immediately began talking about teaching his son how to protect himself, how to grow into a strong, capable man. For the first-time parents-to-be, the future was finally falling into place after years of friendship and months of building their relationship together, which turned romantic last year.
That bright future was torn apart just 48 hours later. Shortly before 1 a.m. on Monday, emergency alerts picked up by ShotSpotter, a gunfire detection technology used by local law enforcement, alerted police to multiple shots fired on Constitution Drive, a residential side street just off Foster Street. When officers arrived at the scene, they found Richardson unresponsive in the driver’s seat of his silver Suzuki Swift, with multiple gunshot wounds across his body. First responders from local Emergency Medical Services confirmed he was dead at the scene.
A second victim, a 20-year-old woman who was with Richardson that night, was also hit by gunfire, sustaining wounds to her upper right thigh and abdomen. Guerrier confirmed the injured woman is the girlfriend of Richardson’s sister, who the pair were visiting along with other relatives at the Constitution Drive residence. According to official police accounts, Richardson and the woman had just arrived at the home. The woman exited the car and entered the residence, and when she returned to the vehicle, suspects in a white Japanese-model vehicle pulled up, opened fire on the car, and immediately fled south along Foster Street. The injured woman is currently in stable condition at a local hospital, according to police updates.
Guerrier, who was babysitting at their home when the call came from Richardson’s crying sister, said the shock of the news has been compounded by graphic content circulating online. She told reporters that she was forced to see a cell phone video shared on social media that showed first responders removing Richardson’s body from his vehicle, an image that has compounded her already crippling grief. She also pushed back against any assumptions that her partner was involved in criminal activity, emphasizing that he had no criminal record and never expressed concern for his safety. She described him as a kind, gentle, non-violent man who only cared about building a good life for their growing family.
For Guerrier, the tragedy is compounded by the multiple losses she has already had to endure. She is still grieving the death of her daughter, and now she is left to raise her unborn son alone while staying strong for her other surviving children. She shared that the final conversation she had with Richardson ended in an argument, a detail that haunts her every day, as she never imagined it would be their last. Despite overwhelming pain and the uncertain road ahead, Guerrier said she has chosen to forgive the people who killed her partner, though she acknowledges healing will take a very long time. Her biggest fear, she said, is answering the inevitable questions her son will ask one day: where is my dad, and why will he never meet him.