CHICAGO (CBS) — Saturday marks two years since a shooting killed a recent college graduate in the Chatham neighborhood, and in that time her mother has never stopped fighting for justice.
Rickisha King-Tiggs was 24 when she was shot and killed at 4:54 p.m. Thursday, October 26, 2022, while walking with her mother in the 800 block of East 82nd Street.
Misty Tiggs showed CBS News Chicago all the memories she has kept of her daughter, including photos from her childhood.
“This was Christmas. She wanted a game and a phone, everything,” Tiggs said, showing a photo of her daughter as a girl in braids and overalls. “My baby.”
Rickisha was the only daughter of Misty Tiggs.
‘She’s my only baby. She is my everything,” Tiggs said, “and it hurts every day, every minute, every second, because she was robbed.”
In 2017, Tiggs and her daughter moved to Chatham. A year later they had a falling out with Eugene Arnold, who also lived there.
“I didn’t know him,” Tiggs said. “I didn’t even know his name, so I had to call the police.”
Over the years, Tiggs continued to make reports. She still gets furious when she thinks about everything she said happened.
“From the fact that he looked through Rickisha’s window to the fact that he messed with her at the bus stop – we have made numerous reports about him to the police,” she said.
In 2022, after nearly five years of verbal attacks, things changed.
“On Oct. 4, he hit me in the head with a bottle,” Tiggs said. “He hit me in the head for fifteen Mississippis.”
Tiggs filed another report and began using a different entrance to her building to avoid him. Then came the final encounter on October 26, when Rickisha walked her mother to her car to go to work.
Tiggs saw him and called the police.
“And as soon as I got off the phone with the police, he came out onto the walkway and started shooting,” Tiggs said. “He started shooting! I took my baby!”
Rickisha King-Tiggs died in hospital.
Two years later, as she talks about the moment her daughter was shot, Tiggs is heartbreakingly inconsolable as she falls to her knees and cries.
“I couldn’t help her!” Tiggs screamed and sobbed. “I couldn’t help her!”
Tiggs struggles not only with the loss of her daughter, but also with having to face Arnold in court every month.
“At first I was crying – weak in the corner, I didn’t want to do it. I don’t want to look at him, scared, angry,” said Tiggs, “but I always wear my baby on my shirt so he can So he can hold my baby can see, and everyone in the courtroom can see my baby, so they know who my baby is.”
What was once Rickisha’s room is decorated with memories of her. Tiggs keeps the room clean and tidy as her daughter would have done – and she always keeps the light on to show that Rickisha’s light is never dimmed.
“It feels like it’s been forever. I want to cook for her. I want to clean her room. I want to see her feet. I want to see her smile. I want to hug my baby,” Tiggs sobbed. “She was robbed.”
Arnold is facing numerous charges, including murder, attempted murder and murder. He is due back in court on Monday, November 4.
