Lakisha Roby was devoted to being there for her two young children, ages 2 and 3. The 27-year-old Chicago mom was going through such a nasty divorce that her estranged husband was barred from contacting her or the kids.

Still, it has been a startling realization to those that knew the couple that the father of her children followed her to a bar about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, March 14, 2018, then to a gas station, where police said he gunned her down in cold blood.

Authorities say that Lynn Washington, 40, shot and killed Roby at the BP gas station. He is charged with first-degree murder and parental abduction, police said.

Minutes before the deadly shooting, witnesses said that Washington’s actions inside a bar in suburban Oak Forest raised suspicions, according to court testimony.

“He approached Roby, grabbed her by the neck and pulled her in for a conversation, Assistant State’s Attorney Maria McCarthy told the court, the Tribune relates.

Roby, who was accompanied with another person, decided to leave. When they left that spot and pulled into a gas station in the wee hours, Washington was right behind them.

 “Y’all doing too much,” Washington reportedly said, pulling up beside Roby’s vehicle. Y’all gonna get f----d up.”

As the confrontation escalated, according to McCarthy, Washington pulled out a pistol and shot it at Roby and her friend. The frightened pair fled the scene, but soon discovered that Roby had been hit.

She was able to call 911 and answer when asked who shot her: “My ex-husband.”

It was not the couple’s first violent interaction. McCarthy said that Washington had five prior domestic battery arrests, including one in October last year in which he jumped on Roby – choking her, striking her and biting her -- in her car when she came to his home to pick up their child.

Family members gathered recently to send balloons in the air in honor of Roby.

“Domestic violence is real,” hero cousin Cynthia Faulkner said t the vigil, according to the Chicago Tribune. “This could’ve been me 30 years ago. She did the best she could. Women don’t have a voice when someone is beating you. … It’s not easy to get away from that. She tried.”

When Washington went before the court to be arraigned, Judge Lyke mused how Roby’s protective order should have done at least that.“Everything she did right failed,” the judge said.

 “I wish I could set (bond) at a billion dollars, but I can't.”

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