Lowertown victim's daughter: 'It was horrible' losing her before Mother's Day
ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) - Athena Lund had planned to get together with her mom Charlotte Rawls on Mother's Day. Instead, she is planning her funeral.
Police say Charlotte Rawls was found shot to death inside a 3rd floor apartment in Lowertown St. Paul early Saturday morning.
"Not good. Not good at all. We just want to know what happened to her. Why it happened. We don't know much right now," said Lund.
Investigators believe the man who lives there, Scott Klund, shot Rawls and another man, who is still in the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. But they aren't saying how the victims knew Klund or why he opened fire.
"I don't know if he was a new friend of hers or if she just met him. She was a real trusting person so if she met someone and hung out with him, she would have trusted him," said Lund.
Lund says her mother was a "free spirit", who was staying with various friends because she'd recently lost her apartment, and had health problems that made it hard for her to work.
The last time she spoke to her mom was three weeks ago, when Rawls stopped by to see a few of her nine grandchildren and made plans to return on Mother's Day. But police knocked on Lund's door the day before to tell her her mother had been murdered.
"It was horrible. For the last 3 days, I've done nothing but lay on the couch and cry and sleep," said Lund.
As a mother herself, Lund knows the strength of the bond between a mother and child. And knowing that bond was broken by an act of violence is enough to break her heart.
"I just want people to know she was a really good person and she didn't deserve to die," said Lund.
So far, police have not released the name of the other shooting victim.
Klund is in the Ramsey County Jail. Prosecutors have until noon on Tuesday to charge him or let him go.
Charlotte Rawls' family set up a fund to help cover the funeral and burial expenses. If you want to help, go to https://www.gofundme.com/billywood