Ikea Hood shooting: Balloon release held for slain 17-year-old new mother
DALLAS - Family and friends are remembering a Lancaster High School junior shot and killed this week.
Ikea Hood had just given birth three weeks ago. Her on-and-off boyfriend is charged for her death.
After a moment of silence, dozens of balloons were released Wednesday outside of Lancaster High School where Hood attended school as a junior.
Taquoya Lester is Hood's mom.
"This is amazing. She just let me know she left an impact on everybody," she said. "Just her name alone. You say Ikea, and this is what it is."
Sunday morning, Lester found her daughter suffering from a gunshot wound in a bedroom of her on Gramblng Drive in Southeast Oak Cliff.
Tuesday, Dallas police say Hood's suspected killer, 17-year-old Trevon Wright was arrested by U.S. Marshals and booked into the Dallas County jail.
"I know that her spirit is still here with us with all these people being here," Lester said.
According to Wright's arrest warrant affidavit, "the suspect and Hood had been in an ‘on-again-off-again’ dating relationship for the past two years."
The documents say Hood recently learned her newborn daughter had not been fathered by Wright and that she planned to confess to Wright the day she was murdered.
The affidavit says Lester told police she heard a loud noise in the room where Wright and Hood were. And when she went to check on them, she found her daughter shot, and Wright was gone.
At the balloon release, friends, family and loved ones shared memories of Hood, who was a member of the Tigerettes Dance Team. They also donated baby items to the family.
"We are forever grateful for this. We know this would mean a lot to Ikea. It means a lot to us, and it shows that she was loved," said Jalaya Williams, Hood’s sister. "It lets us know that what happened to her, people understand it’s not correct, and they want to stand behind us."
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Ikea Hood murder: 'On-again-off again' boyfriend charged with killing high schooler
17-year-old Trevon Wright is charged with the murder of Ikea Hood. An arrest warrant affidavit says that Hood planned to tell Wright, her "on-again-off-again" boyfriend, the baby she recently had was not his.
Dallas police have not said where they arrested Wright or how they tracked him down. They also have not said whether a possible murder weapon was recovered or where right may have gotten the gun.
"What was done to my sister, I don’t want to be done to anybody else. I don’t want to cause another family pain," Williams said. "So at this point, on behalf of Ikea and Ice’lynn, we’re just asking you for justice for Ikea."
Right now, Ikea’s family says they’re leaning heavily on their faith.
"I can’t count how many times we’ve prayed, how many times we’ve had breakdowns, and we’re just like, ‘God help us. God get us through,’" Williams said. "We all know that God is going to get us through this. We don’t understand it right now, but we know God got us. We’re going to come out on top from this."
According to the school district, Wright attended Lancaster High School last year and withdrew before the year ended. She was not a student this year.