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Mother speaks out after teen daughter is killed in triple shooting at troubled Indianapolis apartment complex

Michelle Diggs lost her daughter, 18-year-old Lashelle Hewlett, in a Feb. 6 shooting at Hawthorne Apartments near 32nd Street and Emerson Avenue on Indy's east side.

INDIANAPOLIS — With tears running down her face, Michelle Diggs holds a photo of her 18-year-old daughter, Lashelle Hewlett. Diggs is standing near the spot where Hewlett was shot and killed Tuesday around 4:15 p.m. right outside the family's front door at the Hawthorne Apartments at 32nd Street and Emerson Avenue.

"My baby is gone,” Diggs said. “They took my baby's life over words. I don't have my child anymore."

Diggs says her daughter got into an argument with another woman that escalated into a fight. She says a woman not involved in the fight pulled up in a car, jumped out, fired shots and took off.

Credit: Rich Nye/WTHR
Michelle Diggs shows her arm in a cast after she was shot trying to protect her daughter, Lashelle Hewlett. Hewlett was killed in the shooting.

Diggs says she was trying to break up the fight. She was shot in the hand. A bullet also grazed her chest. She says her daughter was shot in the heart.

"All I kept hearing my daughter saying was, 'Mommy, I'm sorry. Mommy, I'm sorry. Mommy, I'm sorry.’ I'm sorry was the last thing my baby said to me,” Diggs said.

Diggs says that Hewlett's boyfriend jumped in front of the gunfire to try to protect Hewlett. He was hit in the groin by a bullet. Police did not provide an update on his condition Wednesday.

Diggs says she was in the process of trying to move her family out of the troubled Hawthorne Apartments.

Credit: Rich Nye/WTHR
The sign for Hawthorne Apartments, located near 32nd Street and Emerson Avenue on Indy's east side.

"I promised her we were going to be out of here before my 38th birthday, and my birthday is in May,” said Diggs, overcome with emotion and unable to complete her thought.

It's a promise she can't keep now.

"How the hell am I supposed to live without her? She was the reason for me living,” Diggs said.

Hewlett was a senior at Crispus Attucks High School.

Diggs believes that one woman is responsible for shooting all three people, but she does not know the shooter. She says the woman arrived and fled the scene in a black Dodge Charger.

IMPD has not confirmed that or provided any suspect or vehicle information.

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