24-year-old National Guardsman gunned down while making a Doordash delivery in St. Roch

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - A 24-year-old National Guardsman was gunned down in broad daylight while making a Doordash delivery Sunday (June 26) evening in the St. Roch neighborhood.

“That’s my baby’s heartbeat, it’s not even 30 seconds, that’s all I got,” Kendra Washington said while playing a recording of her son’s heartbeat. “I heard his heartbeat when he came into this world and I was able to hear it on his way out of here.”

Washington had to do the unthinkable Tuesday, take her baby boy off life support just eleven days after his 24th birthday.

“His brother, his sisters are hurting behind this, you tore my family up,” his father Raymond Hill II said. “Please come forward and turn yourself in or somebody say something, please, come forward and say something.”

Sunday, just after 5 p.m., Raymond Hill III was running out to get supplies to barbecue for his family, when he accepted a quick Doordash order like he frequently would.

“I don’t know how him working turned into me burying my child,” Washington said.

Washington says police found 50 shell casings at the corner of St. Roch and North Miro. She says they believe it may have been a case of mistaken identity because a car with a description similar to his had been reported stolen that morning.

“I know when this happened to him he was terrified because he didn’t know why and who was doing it,” Washington said.

Hill took four bullets, one that doctors say should have been instantly fatal to the head, but Hill was a fighter.

“If you think about a rainy day and the sunshine pops out on a rainy day, that’s him. They took my sunshine,” Washington said. “My son was just loveable to everybody he met like he was aggravating loveable, you know? If you’re having a bad day, he just keeps poking instead, just see your smile.”

Washington says her son was respectful, funny, and charismatic. He loved fashion, cars, and to rap, but most of all he loved life and his family. He felt a strong sense of duty and was waiting for his orders from the National Guard in November.

“I was more worried about him was work the borders and overseas, when I was supposed to be worried by what was going on here. We have no control the city is running rampant,” Washington said.

They are begging the mothers and fathers out there who may have seen something for help.

“I know you’re scared, I just need you to put yourself in our shoes and understand what we’re going through,” Washington said. “Turn around and look at your good child and imagine if that was your good child that this happened to. Wouldn’t you want answers? Wouldn’t you want someone to help you?”

For the person responsible…

“I wish they feel all my pain, every bit of it because you took a piece of my heart from me that I’ll never get back,” Washington said. “All I can do is watch videos and listen to his heartbeat.”

Hill’s mother and father say they won’t rest until his killer is caught. They will never stop talking about him.

They will be having a balloon release Thursday at 7120 Runnymede Drive at 6 p.m.

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