'I never thought he would kill my daughter': A mother's message after Fort Myers murder-suicide

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Last Saturday, 35-year-old Takisha Best was killed at a home on Williams Street while her children were sleeping.

"I was just praying, 'Please, God, don't let her be gone," said Tracey Best, Takisha's mother.

Tracey recalled the moment she found her daughter's body on the front porch that morning, after she had been shot twice by a man Tracey said was her ex-boyfriend.

"She had just pulled up five minutes before he came and walked on the back porch and asked for a light," Tracey said. "And then he just pulled out the gun and started shooting her.”

Family members said Takisha had broken up with him two months ago and was working to start fresh with a new job, and providing a better life for her three children.

Tracey Best

"She was starting a new relationship and I don't think he wanted to accept it," Tracey said.

She said she'd known the shooter for more than 15 years, and never thought he would do something like this.

"He loved them children," she said. "He took them to school, he did anything for them. He’s been in their lives since they were small babies.”

Tracey said she wants the community to learn from her daughter's story.

Tracey Best

“When you're through with a person... please go a different way, because you don’t know what that person is thinking," she said. "Just because you are through with them that doesn’t mean they are finished with you. I tell you, you really don’t know people, because I have known this guy for a long time and I would have never thought he would kill my daughter."

The situation remains under investigation.

In the meantime, Tracey has set up a GoFundMe to help with arrangements to honor Takisha's life.