A Michigan family is devastated after 24-year-old Brianna Frame was shot and killed by her ex-boyfriend while holding her baby daughter. Police in Hamtramck said they found two people dead from gunshot wounds on August 29. The shooter, Brianna’s ex, took his own life moments after killing her.
Her family identified her as the victim through WDIV and a GoFundMe page created in her memory. The Hamtramck Police Department later confirmed her identity in an email to PEOPLE.
Brianna’s brother, Donald Frame, witnessed the horrific moment. “She’s screaming, and then I saw him shoot her in the face,” he told WDIV. “And then I went to grab my dad, and then I told him that she’s been shot.”
Her aunt, Michelle Lynn, wrote on Facebook that Brianna was murdered inside her parents’ home. Donald told WDIV that losing his sister at such a young age feels unbearable, saying she “had her whole life ahead of her.”
The trauma has rippled through the family. Brianna’s cousin, Alicia Lepkowski, said the pain of what happened inside the home is something they’ll carry forever. “Nobody should have to come back to the house and clean up a family member’s blood from the ground,” she told WDIV. “How do you even go on?”
Brianna’s obituary shared how deeply she loved being a mom. It described her baby daughter Kameron as her “life” and said she cherished “every minute of the 10 months she was able to raise her.”
Lepkowski set up a GoFundMe to support Kameron’s future and cover funeral expenses. In her message, she pleaded for awareness around domestic violence, writing that she is “praying for every woman that is going through domestic violence.”
The fundraiser has brought in donations and words of comfort from friends, family, and strangers shaken by Brianna’s story. Loved ones say their focus now is on raising Kameron in a way that honors her mother’s memory.
For the Frame family, the tragedy feels unreal. One moment Brianna was a young mom with plans for the future, and the next she was gone in front of the baby she adored.