CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WAND) – A lover of life, Lisa Lewis was a friend to all, and an enemy to no one.
"I don't know what animal would do this to her,” Andrew Smith, Lewis’ father, said. “This is not something that humans do."
Days after his daughter was gunned down outside her Champaign home, Smith is pleading for justice.
"She had a smile that stretched from here all the way to New York,” Smith said.
Lewis was a mother, a sister, and a daughter. She was killed outside of her Champaign home Monday morning as she left for work.
"I never thought that I would be burying my daughter, I thought that my daughter would be burying me,” Smith said.
The mother of four teenage boys, ranging from 13 to 18, leaves behind a family who is grieving. On New Years Eve, her father’s birthday, the two men who loved her dearly, including her 18-year-old son, remember the woman taken from them too soon, and reflect on what they’ll miss the most.
"Her smile, her energy,” her son Deraujae Lewis, said. “That is all my Mom was. She was full of energy." Her father remembered her for her smile saying. “she did have a million dollar smile and one of the most wonderful, beautiful young ladies that you would get to know."
Champaign Police are not sure who killed the 36-year-old. Her oldest son remembers the moments leading up to her death.
"She told us she loved us because we were the only people in the front room and then she ended up leaving and it was less than a minute and we heard all the shots go off,” Lewis said.
Lewis’ family hopes justice will be served in the death of their loved one, as they remember the good times, and hold onto the memories they have of her.
"I pray to God that someday whoever is responsible for this terrible thing will be brought forward and prosecuted for it,” Smith said.
Champaign Police is asking anyone who has any information about the murder to contact them.
