{"id":296321,"date":"2025-10-12T03:49:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T03:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/296321\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T03:49:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T03:49:12","slug":"senseless-victims-mother-speaks-out-after-petsmart-shooting-over-thank-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/296321\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Senseless’: Victim’s mother speaks out after PetSmart shooting over ‘Thank You’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Victim's <\/p>\n

DALLAS<\/strong> – A senseless tragedy. That\u2019s what the mother of a woman who was killed earlier this week is calling her daughter\u2019s murder after she was killed over the lack of a \u2018thank you.\u2019<\/p>\n

What we know:<\/p>\n

Leslie Wickware was waiting for her daughter Cecilia Simpson, affectionately known as \u2018CeeCee\u2019 by her family, to come and visit her.<\/p>\n

“It’s like a bad dream that I can never wake up from,” said Wickware.<\/p>\n

“But that never happened. It\u2019s a sad, difficult, hard thing. Senseless.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The backstory:<\/p>\n

CeeCee was shot and killed by Keona Hampton outside a PetSmart.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Keona Zachyua Hampton (Source: Dallas County Jail) <\/p>\n

According to a police report, she had opened the door for Hampton and when she didn\u2019t say thank you, CeeCee called her out on it. Which would lead to an argument between the two women that CeeCee would walk away from and take refuge in the PetSmart, telling employees she was being followed.<\/p>\n

Hampton admitted to following CeeCee into PetSmart, throwing a bottle at her car as she was trying to leave, and getting into a fight, before eventually shooting her in the parking lot.<\/p>\n

Hampton has been arrested for the murder of CeeCee and had previously been arrested for assaulting a family member.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

“I would never forget my granddaughter calling me, telling me that her mother had got I would never forget those screams. I would never forget the screams when she was calling me, telling me her mother got shot the screens in the emergency room, the doctor told us she didn’t make it,” said Wickware.<\/p>\n

CeeCee\u2019s 16-year-old son says he doesn\u2019t sleep much anymore because, instead of dreams, he\u2019s plagued by one unanswered question after another.<\/p>\n

“My mom as a bigger person, she walked away multiple times,” said Simpson\u2019s son, Derion Williams.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Derion Williams (left) and Cecilia Simpson (right) <\/p>\n

“What was she thinking? What was going through her mind? Why did she have to follow my mom? What provoked her to continue to engage with my mom to do that? What drove her to do that?”<\/p>\n

Local perspective:<\/p>\n

CeeCee\u2019s family wants her to be remembered for more than just the way her life ended.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s crazy, you know, because one day you wake up with your mom next to your side the next day is just, it’s quiet. Can’t see her no more,” said Williams. “It was all love. She showed her love in many ways, even if you didn\u2019t take it, she showed her love.”<\/p>\n

“Outside of this tragedy, she was a person who had a family, who was a mother, a daughter, a sister who will miss her,” said the victim\u2019s sister, Monica Nelson.<\/p>\n

CeeCee\u2019s daughter was with her at the time of the attack and saw everything. Her family says they\u2019re trying to raise enough money to make sure she and her brother get the counseling and support they need following this tragedy.<\/p>\n

The Source:<\/b> Information in this article was provided from interviews conducted by FOX 4’s Vania Castillo.<\/p>\n

Crime and Public Safety<\/a>Dallas<\/a>Dallas County<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS – A senseless tragedy. That\u2019s what the mother of a woman who was killed earlier this week…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":296322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,6082,1596,7290,50,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-296321","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-crime-publicsafety","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-county","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115359159360397824","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}