A California mother was gunned down in the laundry room of her home, where she had run to hide from her raging ex-boyfriend with her 4-year-old son.
Brittany Ligdis, 30, called 911 when Jeffrey Kendall, a US citizen and father of the boy, broke into her Pinole home on February 16, family members told KTVU. But Kendall got to Ligdis before police arrived.
A neighbor’s doorbell camera caught him running down the street moments after the murder. The California Highway Patrol caught up with him laer that night nearly 90 miles away in Santa Cruz.
Kendall has been charged with homicide, possession of an assault weapon, and child endangerment, and the 4-year-old boy is with relatives.
“He keeps saying ‘mommy’s dead, mommy’s dead’,” Ligdis’s aunt, Nancy O’Neil, said. “We replay it in our heads over and over every day.”
Ligdis was studying nursing at Diablo Valley College.
Family members said Ligdis had broken up with Kendall a week before the shooting and that Kendall struggled with mental illness and drug abuse but had no history of domestic violence.
Still, friends said, Ligdis was concerned.
“She said to me ‘I’m doing okay, but it’s really hard. He’s very unpredictable right now,’” said Kassandra Santiago, who was studying nursing alongside her friend.
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[Featured image: Jeffrey Kendall/Pinole Police Department and Brittany Ligdis/GoFundMe]
