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Mother shot, killed while taking kids home in Houston; 2 teens arrested, charged

Isha Goff was shot and killed as she was taking her kids home last month.

HOUSTON — Two teens have been arrested and charged with murder in connection with the death of a 37-year-old woman last month.

Isha Goff was shot to death on Feb. 23 in the Westchase area.

According to the Houston Police Department, Leashtian Blanks, 17, and a 16-year-old boy were each charged with murder. Blanks is charged as an adult while the other teen is charged as a juvenile.

Around 8 p.m. on the night of the shooting, Houston police officers responded to the shooting scene along Elmside Drive, which is just inside the Beltway between Richmond Avenue and Westheimer Road. When they got there, they found Goff dead inside her vehicle. She had been shot to death.

Investigators said they figured out that Goff was heading home with her two sons when two people approached her car and opened fire. Goff was shot but her children, who were 3 years old and 13 years old, were not injured. Goff reportedly protected her teenage son, who was sitting in the front seat.

"The decedent attempted to use her body to shield her son in the front seat from the gunfire, she was shot multiple times," an official said during Blanks' court appearance on Wednesday night.

Investigators were later able to identify Blanks and the juvenile as the suspects in the shooting. They were both arrested Tuesday without incident.

Goff's godmother, pastor Gladys Pratt Seahorn, said she's struggling to make sense of what happened.

"She was just a lovable person. A caring person," she said. "She was just lovable, that was Isha."

Seahorn said the 13-year-old who was in the car when his mother was killed continues to re-live what happened the night of the shooting.

"He runs track and he told me that they were practicing for track and when the gun went off it startled him because he remembered the gunfire," Seahorn said.

A judge set Banks' bond at $150,000. As of Wednesday night, court records showed he was still in custody.

Exactly what led up to the shooting remains unclear.

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