Mother of woman killed by police visits memorial, waits for answers

What Kennedy also doesn't know is what prompted the officer or officers to open fire, whether they were justified and how the bullet struck Willard in the trajectory it did.

"There is something wrong here. There is obviously something wrong. How bad it is, I don't know. What they did right, I don't know. Again, we'll wait for the report and see what the real results are," she said.

Kennedy knows her daughter battled a severe heroin addiction. She knows her daughter wasn't perfect, especially when on drugs. Kennedy wants to keep a realistic view of what happened, which is why she's not ready to pass judgment on police.

But she also wants answers.

"I'm all for take your time. Give me the answers when you absolutely know them. Because I don't want them to come to me one day and say one thing and then come back two days later and say, 'Oh wait, we found out some more information.'

"I'm running on adrenaline. That's all I can think of. I feel a vise around my chest. I don't know if I'm holding myself tight enough, but I'm trying not to shake," she said.

On Saturday, Willard will be buried in hometown of Vancouver, Wash.

"I would like for this (incident) not to be known as a negative thing. Let's make something positive out of it. Let's learn from it if there was something wrong. Let's make this a teaching tool for other officers and other ways to take on this kind of a situation," Kennedy said.

E-mail: preavy@desnews.com

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