Grieving mother calls for an end to violence amid deadly year in East Baton Rouge Parish

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - 2022 is on pace to become one of the deadliest years on record for East Baton Rouge Parish.

According to the coroner’s website, there were 136 homicides in 2020, 170 in 2021, and as of last week, 135 in 2022.

One of this year’s victims was 17-year-old Alashia Collins.

“Alaisha, she was very beautiful and sweet-hearted as I am,” her mother Nicole Collins said.

Collins was shot and killed as she tried to drive away from an apartment complex back in April after getting into a physical altercation, according to Baton Rouge Police.

Joshua London, 23 and Queriana Richard, 20 were both arrested and booked into East Baton Rouge Parish Prison in connection to Collins’ shooting death.

Police say London was charged with 2nd Degree Murder and Illegal Use of a Weapon while Richard was charged with Obstruction of Justice.

Collins would have turned 18 this week on Dec. 20.

“I really had to sit still to understand what I could’ve done to stop that,” Collins said.

After another killing this week at the same complex she lost her daughter, and numerous of other shootings over the year, the victim’s mother says enough is enough.

“I am angry in my own way, but I don’t take it and use it to hurt others with it,” Collins said.

Collins believes people have lost touch with the value of life and that is the reason for a lot of the violence we see today.

She says any hope for a better tomorrow has to start at home.

“It takes a team; it takes a village to raise kids. They need time and they need love,” Collins said.

As we enter the holidays, she hopes people will enjoy Christmas free of violence instead of spending it grieving over the loss of a loved one.”Me and my sister are very, very close. She lost a child, and I lost a child as well. Me and my kids, we’re going to make the best of it,” Collins said.

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