KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Family members of a woman killed outside of a Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department station say she was a victim of domestic abuse.
Loved ones want the community to know her as Christina Winters, her maiden name, because they allege she died at the hands of her husband, all while trying to get him some help.
"He killed my baby for no reason," Laverna Winters, Christina's mother, said. "She did not deserve to die like that."
Laverna says that in their eight years of marriage, Christina stood by her husband as he dealt with substance abuse and mental health issues.
"Every time he get high and drunk, she tried to survive and help him," Laverna said. "But he didn't appreciate none of that apparently, because he ended up killing her anyway."
On Thursday, hours before the tragedy outside KCPD's Central Patrol Division station, Christina was worried once again about her husband's condition.
"He was shooting in the air, [so] she took him to be evaluated by the state, they kept him for like two hours and released them," Benson Winters, Christina’s brother, said.
So, she decided to bring him to police, something her family says she'd done in the past.
"But I guess this time he wasn't going quietly, so he had the gun and he was like, he told her that if he couldn't have her, nobody would," Tasha Winters, Christina’s cousin, said.
Officers inside the station on Linwood Boulevard heard the gunfire and stepped out to find Christina dead in the car that crashed in a parking lot next to theirs.
Relatives say the husband's niece also witnessed the killing, but wasn't hurt.
There's now profound sadness.
"There was nobody that she didn't show love to, everybody was her brother, her sister or her cousin," Tanika Hollins, Christina's cousin, said. "It was never a friend, everybody was her family. So we want her to be remembered as somebody who was loving."
And while family say Christina loved her husband, they describe the relationship as volatile with warning signs.
"To any woman out there that is being abused by a man, or any man out here being abused by a woman, I just tell him to just leave, it is not worth it," Benson Winters said.
Another family member of Christina's also encourages people to not take warning sings lightly.
"When people tell you that they're going to do something to you, believe them when they say it," Tasha Winters said. "If a person says that ‘I’m going to kill you,' know that they're going to kill you. Don't take that stuff for granted."
As of Friday evening, no charges had been filed in this case.
If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence here are some resources:
- KCPD domestic violence resources
- Kansas Coalition against Sexual and Domestic Abuse
- National Domestic Violence Hotline
- Signs of abuse
- Newhouse KC 24-hour hotline: (816)-471-5800
- NDVH text line: send "START" to 88788
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