‘She was an angel on earth’: Sister of woman killed in DC carjacking speaks
WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — Erica Gaines called her sister Leslie Gaines “an angel on earth.”
Leslie Gaines, 55, was affectionately known as “Amy” by family and friends. She was killed on Monday in what Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officials said was a carjacking and subsequent crash.
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Kayla Kenisha Brown, 22, allegedly jumped into the Mazda SUV that Leslie Gaines was sitting in, following her physical therapy appointment she had for her multiple sclerosis (MS) condition.
“It was just shocking because [of] the type of person that she was,” Erica Gaines said of her sister in an interview with DC News Now.
Leslie Gaines, she said, was the type of person who was quiet and stayed to herself.
“You don’t expect something like this to happen, not in a million years,” she said.
Erica Gaines said she called her sister got the news that her niece’s car was stolen after she left the car running during their visit to the MedStar Washington Hospital.
“I called her, hoping she would pick up,” she said. “But then I thought if I keep calling, I could be putting her in danger.”
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Erica Gaines’ daughter told police, according to court records, that she went into the emergency room to get assistance from hospital staff to get her mother out of the car.
Authorities said that Brown allegedly slammed the Mazda into the U.S. Attorney’s office and that Leslie Gaines later died at a hospital.
Erica Gaines said her sister had a heart of gold.
“She loved life. That’s who she was: loving, giving, kind,” Erica Gaines said. “Those are the words, anything good that you can think of.”
Leslie Gaines had been using a wheelchair and learning to walk again, her sister said.
“Even though she had MS in her words, MS didn’t have her,” she said.
Not only has Leslie Gaines’ death hit the family hard, but her friends, too, she said.
“My niece fell to her knees on the ground,” Erica Gaines said. “I just walked away.”
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Erica Gaines had so many questions for Brown.
“Why didn’t you let her out?” she asked. “Why did you keep going?”
She said Leslie Gaines will be remembered.
“I want her to be remembered as being an angel on earth because you could not ask for a better person,” she said.
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