‘My little girls are gone’: Mother of woman killed in arboretum shooting speaks at vigil
AUSTIN (KXAN) — It has been a year since three people were shot dead at an apartment complex in the Arboretum area of northwest Austin.
Family and friends of Amanda Broderick, her daughter Alyssa and Alyssa’s boyfriend Willie Simmons III gathered Thursday night to honor her life.
Police arrested Stephen Broderick in connection with the triple murder and charged him with capital murder. Amanda was Broderick’s ex-wife and Alyssa his adopted daughter.
While the vigil had dozens of attendees, Amanda’s mother, Charlene Ramirez, said, “There are so many others who just couldn’t make it because of the work and the long commutes.”
Ramirez described her daughter as “lovable” and “a great mother.” She said Alyssa, her granddaughter, “had her whole future ahead of her.”
“She should graduate. She was supposed to be going to prom and now I can’t see that,” she said.
Alyssa and Simmons were both athletes in the Elgin Independent School District, with basketball being their sport and football being his sport.
“My little girls are gone but I will always carry them in my heart,” Ramirez said.
https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/my-baby-girls-are-gone-mother-of-woman-killed-in-arboretum-shooting-speaks-at-vigil/ ‘My little girls are gone’: Mother of woman killed in arboretum shooting speaks at vigil
