At Henrico vigil, pastor says, ‘Don’t let this cripple us’

Speaking to a crowd of mourners last night at a Henrico County apartment complex, Pastor Harold Wilson spoke of the senselessness of a young woman's death there and asked that hatred, anger and revenge be put aside.

"Don't let this cripple us," said Wilson, pastor of Victory Life Fellowship on Chamberlayne Avenue, as more than 100 people raised their hands toward a half moon overhead.

Candles burned at the door beneath a "do not enter" sign at Apartment L, where firefighters found 26-year-old Keiona Cecilia Tiree Braxton unconscious on New Year's Eve sometime before 7 a.m.

Efforts to resuscitate her failed.

Police have not released a cause of death but are investigating the case as a homicide. A woman described by police as a person of interest is in custody on charges stemming from an altercation with Braxton just after Christmas

Joyce Braxton said her youngest child, whom she called KeeKee, was three months pregnant; she said the father of the child had been living with Keiona Braxton for the past few years.

But police said a dispute had arisen between Braxton and the other woman, Kayla Camille Armstrong, 25, who had a previous relationship with the boyfriend.

Neighbors said last night that a fight had broken out between the women Dec. 27 at Braxton's town house in the 5700 block of Crenshaw Road, off Chamberlayne, just north of the city limits.

"I had told her that it could be dangerous, that she could be killed, but she felt like she could handle everything," Joyce Braxton said last night. In the Dec. 27 incident, Keiona Braxton had received a gash to her head.

Family members said the boyfriend was at the vigil last night, but he could not be found afterward for a comment. He was not at home when a fire broke out Dec. 31 shortly after 6:30 a.m., Joyce Braxton said. He and Keiona worked at a laundry, she said.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete last night, but tensions were palpable.

More than a dozen Henrico police and security personnel oversaw the informal vigil outside the town house at The Noelle at Brook Hill complex.

Members of the Braxton family said police have told them that the fire, damage from which was barely evident from outside, was reported by a neighbor.
Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 649-6601 or .