Boyfriend: Woman Shot Dead After Cigarette Comment to Teens

Two 14-year-old boys are wanted in the senseless killing of a young mother who had words with them as they harassed her boyfriend walking down the street on Saturday afternoon.

Kayla Peterson’s boyfriend, Bill Bailey, said the situation began when he walked out of J’s News at about 3:15 p.m.

“My friend came in and got cigarettes, and three young kids followed him. They kept following him and asking him for a cigarette,” said Brock Edwards, who was working at the convenience store.

Bailey said the teens followed him, harassing him while he walked the two blocks home to 13th Street. When he got there, Bailey said the 22-year-old Peterson came outside and told the boys to get a job.

“The next thing you know, they just pull out a gun and shoot for no reason. It was just over a cigarette,” Edwards said. “Now, my friend lost his girlfriend — an amazing, amazing girl, and she was such a good mother, too — and now her child has to grow up without her mother being there.”

Bailey said he held the mother of his 23-month-old girl, and as she lay dying, Peterson told him that she loved him and their daughter.

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