CAMPBELL COUNTY, Va. – Mary Beth Cash took her last picture with her older brother, Carlton Stratton, 46, on Christmas night.
And it’s one she’ll now cherish forever.
“He loved his family and his friends too. And he would give the shirt off his back to anybody,” Cash said.
Around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office responded to shots fired on Cog Lane.
When they arrived they found Stratton had been shot to death.
His sister said he had gone to their cousin’s house to drop off a friend, “He (Michael Langford) knocked on the door and my brother happened to open the door and ... (he) for some reason he started shooting and it shot my brother in the chest with his daughter watching," she said.
Police arrested and charged 40-year-old Michael Langford with second-degree murder.
Cash said the men knew each other but had no connection.
She said her brother had a past with drugs but that the shooting had nothing to do with that.
“He’s been recovered and he’s being doing awesome. He hasn’t been doing anything, hanging out with the same crowd. We were so proud of him,” Cash said.
She believes it’s a case of “mistaken identity,” and Langford mistook him for someone else.
After losing her only other brother in November, Cash is now the only child left in her family.
“It was already hard losing one brother and we had to go through the first Christmas without him. And now to lose another one so soon and on Christmas. It’s never going to be the same,” Cash said.
The family created a gofundme page to help with funeral costs.
Stratton’s viewing is planned for this weekend and the family will hold a memorial for him in January.