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KC mother raising reward money to find justice for murdered son, nephew

Posted at 3:57 PM, Apr 13, 2017
and last updated 2017-04-13 18:47:22-04

Aishah Coppage is still fighting for justice for her son, Montell Jones, and nephew, Jayden Ugwuh.

Both boys, 8 and 9 years old, were murdered last August in their beds when someone shot bullets through their window.

Coppage believes someone knows who is responsible for the murders and is hoping someone will come forward with information after she raises $5,000 in reward money.

"Somebody definitely knows,” said Coppage. "We're living in a city where we could be walking, shopping, right next to the person who committed the crime. So it's been difficult."

Helping Coppage is Charity Guinn, whose 6-year-old daughter, Angel, was shot and killed outside a south Kansas City 7-Eleven in October 2014. Two men are now behind bars for her murder: Leandre Smith, who is currently serving a 23-year sentence, and Howard Chase IV, who was found guilty last week for the murder and is expected to be sentenced within the month.

Seeing justice for Angel has kept hope alive for Coppage.

"It happened for them. I know it's going to happen for me. And being right there and to see it, justice being served, it just definitely gave me hope,” she said.

And although Guinn now has justice, it doesn’t mean she’s going to stop fighting for others.

"Our push will never stop. Just because I got justice for my child, I won't stop pushing for justice for the other children,” said Guinn, who operates her own nonprofit ‘Angels 4 Justice.’

“There's plenty of children out here who are still waiting for justice to be served, and I think it's a shame our community won't step up and help out,” she said.

Coppage is banking that the more reward money she can raise, the more tips will come to find Montell and Jayden’s killer.

"It's heartbreaking at the same time that we even have to raise money for justice, that we have to pay people to speak up for innocent kids,” she said.

The GoFundMe campaign set up by Coppage can be found here: https://www.gofundme.com/justice4-montell-and-jayden