Tascha Robinson and Shawn Elliot Sr. sat outside their West Chester Township home Friday, lovingly gazing at pictures of their 15-year old daughter, Amber.
Those images and her memory were all they had left.
The teenager was stabbed to death Thursday night during a melee at the North Pointe condominiums near Muhlhauser and Rialto Roads.
Khrendon Gray, 18, of Springfield Township, is charged with murder and is being held on a $1 million bond.
Police are looking for Rashon Martin, 17, of Forest Park, as a possible accomplice.
"She was a beautiful daughter – a beautiful person," Tascha said. "She took care of everybody she was around."
Elliott, Amber's stepfather, said she was a wonderful big and little sister to six siblings in a blended family.
"She was a role model. She was responsible. She was an honor student at Lakota West High School," Elliott said. "Do you know how hard that is?"
A memorial with balloons, stuffed animals, pictures and other items was evident Friday at the corner where Amber died at Triangle Drive and West Wind Court.
Carmaleetta Ross was among the mourners.
She placed a stuff bear among the memorabilia – one that had been given to her a year ago when her two-year-old daughter died in an accident.
"This just doesn't make sense," Ross sobbed, as tears streamed from her eyes.
Amber had been at her house all afternoon and the two spoke just three minutes before she died.
"To see a child who has been on your porch for six hours – and you're standing there watching her bleed to death – it's just sad," she said.
Ross recalled that the fighting began around 7:00 p.m.
"There were four fights going on at one," she said. "You couldn't focus on [just] one fight."
Records indicate West Chester Township Police were called to the scene at 7:06 p.m.
As officers prepared to leave at 7:28 p.m., Ross says she pleaded with them to stay.
"Something is about to physically happen," she stated.
It was 8:08 p.m. when Ross called 911.
"Oh my God," she cried. "Somebody's been stabbed where we live at. Triangle Drive. The police just left. There's more of them. They just came back."
Everyone who witnessed the fighting said she was an innocent bystander who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"The stabbing was actually meant for someone else," Ross added.
Police said Gray stabbed Amber in the back.
A plea of not guilty was entered for him Friday morning in Butler County Area III Court, since he didn't have an attorney.
Gray said he wouldn't plead guilty to something he didn't do. Bond was set at $1 million. A preliminary hearing is set for Tuesday.
"Devastating," was the word Elliott used when he heard that Amber was wounded in her back.
"There ain't enough words to explain the pain,” he said. “That boy can't do enough time. When he do life, that still ain't going to be enough. Amber gone!"
Amber's mother was just as angry and emotional.
"For you [Gray] to stab her in the back – to use that means she was running away," Tascha Robinson said. "She was trying to get away and you stabbed her in the back and watched her drop to the ground – and ran off?"
"It's senseless," she intoned.
Tascha said her daughter just turned 15, was looking forward to getting her driver's license and wanted to graduate early from Lakota West to become a pediatrician or pharmacist.
"She had just begun living her life," Tascha said. "We’ll never see her again."
The last time Tascha saw Amber alive was Thursday morning she she was getting ready to go work as a nurse and Amber was getting ready for school.
"I helped her with her hair," she recalled. "I put her in my car and drove her down to the bus stop, not knowing it was going to be the last time I saw my child.”
“I told her I loved her,” she said. “She told me she loved me."
Now, memories and photographs are all that are left.
Wishing she had one more chance to talk to her daughter, Tascha thought carefully about what she'd say.
"That I love her and she was a beautiful child and I thank God for every minute I had her,” she said. “Every minute. And that I'll see her again. One day."
