‘She was my rock’: Mother of innocent woman shot, killed on Pittsburgh’s North Side speaks out

PITTSBURGH — “The thought of her not being in my world, it terrifies me. There’s going to be emptiness. It’s a part of me that went with her,” said Bridgette Mehalic.

She’s talking about her 33-year-old daughter, Jacquelyn Mehalic.

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Police say Mehalic and 59-year-old Betty Jean Averytt were shot and killed while waiting at the bus stop on Cedar Avenue Saturday night.

The two victims’ mothers and police say innocent bystanders were caught in the middle of a violent fight at a nearby gas station.

Bridgette Mehalic tells Channel 11 that she spoke to her daughter hours before the shooting.

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“She said she was with some friends and said she would call me when she was done.”

But that never happened.

Now Mehalic says her daughter’s murder left an 8-year-old, 7-year-old, 2-year-old and 11-month-old without their mother.

“In one way they understand and they don’t understand how permanent it is,” she said.

A temporary memorial with flowers sits in the spot where Jacquelyn Mehalic and Averytt were shot.

“He took a mother of four small children. He took the life of a loved daughter and sister and friend, and this loss is being felt by hundreds of people,” Bridgette Mehalic said.

Mehalic is planning her daughter’s funeral for this Wednesday.

The young mother didn’t have life insurance. If you would like to help the Mehalic family, you can donate to her GoFundMe here.

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