New Orleans News

#nolaprimenews Whitney Wilson loved to celebrate life's milestones. She threw her 4-year-old son a superhero-themed birthday party at a trampoline park in December, and she was to take an anniversary trip with her husband in February, with yet more plans for a Disneyland Park visit in the works.

Those plans were cut short Tuesday afternoon when Wilson was fatally shot, while driving on Interstate 10 near the Crowder Boulevard exit in New Orleans with her 12-year-old daughter in the car. The girl was uninjured, but multiple bullets struck Wilson, police said. Emergency Medical Services declared her dead on the spot.

Wilson's violent death, at age 34, has set her loved ones reeling and left a void that her coworkers at Ryder Logistics, where she was a warehouse attendant, feel keenly. Their overwhelming question: Why?

"What made them decide to shoot that car? We'll never know these answers, and even if they find the person, it doesn't bring back Whitney or make anything right," said Ronda Potts, Wilson's coworker.

Friends and colleagues described Wilson as a sweet, outgoing woman who was passionate about her son and daughter. "She was a genuinely nice, hard-working person that always put her kids first," said Shakera Daniels, Wilson's best friend since elementary school. "She was all about family."

The youngest of three siblings, Wilson grew up in the 7th Ward and attended Edward H. Phillips and Langston Hughes Elementary schools, Gregory Junior High and Frederick A. Douglass and Sarah T. Reed High schools. She loved spending time with her family, singing Anita Baker songs and rooting for the New Orleans Saints.