BERKELEY, Calif. (KRON) – A Berkeley family is shattered Thursday night after a pregnant woman was shot and killed.
The drive-by shooting happened Wednesday night on Prince Street near Malcolm X Elementary School.
The family says the 19-year-old victim died this morning after being shot in the head.
The family tells KRON4 this was a heartbreaking and senseless killing. They’re hoping whoever is responsible is found.
Meanwhile, Berkeley as a whole is seeing an uptick in gun violence.
As city leaders grapple with ways to solve the problem, balloons float, and candles lay where the Berkeley woman was gunned down in a drive-by shooting.
The victim, 19-year-old Serenity Henderson, a mother of a 9-month-old, was also expecting another baby.
Henderson was shot while driving along Prince Street near Malcolm X Elementary School.
Her family says her mother and 9-month-old child were in the car. Police say more than a dozen shots were fired. No one else was hit.
“Senseless murders just need to stop,” Rainie Wooten said.
Rainie Wooten remembers her cousin Serenity as an affectionate and caring person.
“Always make you smile, always happy to see you. Always wanted to be around and have fun. She was a young girl,” Wooten said.
While embracing family members near the curbside vigil, Berkeley City Councilmember Ben Bartlett is calling for the recent rise in gun violence to stop.
“This issue is bigger than this neighborhood and it’s bigger than this city. That’s why the mayor and I are launching a regional task force to tackle gun violence because enough is enough,” Bartlett said.
Bartlett says the task force would bring community leaders in Berkeley and nearby cities, such as Oakland and Richmond together to address the gun problem.
Henderson’s family is hoping for answers.
“We gotta stop the violence in America. They say Black Lives Matter, it doesn’t matter because we killing each other. So what we gonna do? We gotta save each other’s life,” Yolanda Small said.
Police have not made any arrests in this shooting.
So far, this year at least 4 people have been shot and killed in the city compared to last year when one person was killed.
The Berkeley mayor released the following statement while Henderson was still in critical condition:
Last night there was another incident of gun violence in Berkeley. This time in a quiet South Berkeley neighborhood. Sadly a young woman was gravely injured and is in critical condition, we pray for her recovery and her family during this difficult time. Thank you to the Berkeley Police Department for their quick response. They are working diligently on this case. If you have any information on this case please call 510-981-5741.
Shootings have become all too frequent this year, with an alarming number of incidents, including three deaths. This is unacceptable and this violence has to stop. I am committed to working with the Police Department and everyone in our community to develop immediate measures to prevent gun violence and invest in long-term solutions like violence prevention programs and resources for our at-risk youth. We need to get guns off the street and make sure our young people don’t end up in this tragic cycle of violence.