Community mourns the death of St. Petersburg city employee

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WINK)—A city sanitation worker was shot and killed in what St. Petersburg police are calling a domestic shooting that led to a multi county incident that started just after noon on Wednesday

Ladavion King is accused of killing Natasha Moses, 47, outside a family home, just a few miles from the sanitation complex where she had worked for 12 years. Flowers and balloons now fill a growing memorial at the complex as friends, family and coworkers stop by to remember Moses.

Neighbors described Moses as a smiling face in the community who always went out of her way to help others.

"Really good mom. She was a supervisor for the city, had her own crew. Just the nicest person you ever want to meet," neighbor Carolyn Harris said. "Every time she see me, even if I'm just dragging the garbage out, she always wave and speak. You know, and like, okay, God bless you. Be careful. She was really, really a nice person."

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Melanie Ford used to live in the same neighborhoods where Moses worked and remembered her as someone who was always willing to lend a hand.

"She was always just very sweet, very responsive. If you ask her for anything, uh, she would try and go out of your way to do it, her, her way to do it," Ford said. " I handed her coffee. We didn't know each other in terms of names, but we knew each other in terms of friendship, and that breaks my heart."

Moses leaves behind four children. Neighbors said she worked hard to support them.

"I saw her as a beautiful woman who was pushing herself up in the world and I think everybody else saw her that way as well," Ford said.

St. Petersburg police said Moses and King got into an argument before King shot and killed Moses in her front-loader work vehicle. The shooting led to a tense standoff on I-75 in Lee County.

"This is a tragedy, and this girl did not deserve this," Ford said.

Harris said the community is grieving. 

"The whole area needs prayer. We need a revival. This senseless killings got to stop," Harris said.

As a survivor of domestic violence, Ford was upset learning what led to the shooting.

" If the one thing I can do today would be to advocate for better treatment of domestic violent, violence survivors, then that would be the message I wanna get out," said Ford. 

St. Petersburg police are continuing to investigate the domestic shooting, including what caused the argument. The community continues to mourn and remember Moses as a hardworking and kind individual.