Family speaks out after mom of 5 is killed, son injured in SW Philadelphia shooting

Family speaks out after mom of 5 killed in SW Philadelphia shooting

The family of a 37-year-old mom of five boys, shot to death almost one week ago in Southwest Philadelphia, is speaking out about the tragedy that also injured her 15-year-old son.

SOUTHWEST PHILADELPHIA - The family of a 37-year-old mom of five boys, shot to death almost one week ago in Southwest Philadelphia, is speaking out about the tragedy that also injured her 15-year-old son.

The family identified the mom as Ikea Welsh. They say her 15-year-old son was also wounded in the shooting, but is expected to physically recover.

"Ikea was a good person, a good mom. I loved her to death, and she was happy-go-lucky. She always did help the family out and she just loved her kids," says Roxanne Hughes, Welsh’s mom. "I want to keep them together if I can, because we’re going to need each other."

Philadelphia police say the shooting happened just after 5 p.m. on the 6200 block of Glenmore Avenue, not far from where Welsh lived, according to her family. They say she was on her way home from her job as a home health aide, with her son.

Her family says the 27-year-old woman that was also shot and survived is a friend of Welsh’s.

"It’s almost unfathomable you can’t even, you know, process it," says Jamillah, Welsh’s sister. "Ironically, she’s been living there for less than a year. She moved, you know, to try to change neighborhoods, to give her sons a better opportunity, then this happened, so no where’s safe anymore."

Police say they did make an arrest and recover a weapon, but the family says they do not know who is in custody or why this happened.

Their biggest hurdle now is what to do next. Hughes says she wants to give her daughter a proper funeral and relocate her grandchildren as their now primary caretaker, but doesn’t know where to begin. She created a GoFundMe to start.

"I don’t have no funeral money, no money to bury her, so I’m just trying to get help for that and I also want to relocate her sons because going back to that house is not an option," says Hughes. "I gotta’ get school clothes and school is just around the corner, I’m just in financial ruins now, at this point."

The family is asking any organizations that may be able to help them to contact them through the GoFundMe page.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Philadelphia police.

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