The late Allyssa Banks
Allyssa Banks was an ambitious student, joining the choir, band and ROTC while taking advanced classes and serving as student government president before graduating from Largo High School this year.
Even as an elementary school pupil, according to Lydia Banks, her mother, she was the type of kid who was doing everything right.
Which has left Lydia Banks wondering why anyone would cut short her child’s promising future — and who did.
On Oct. 19 2016, her daughter was gunned down during an evening, and the case remains open.
“I’m hurt. I’m angry. I’m totally at a loss,” Lydia Banks said. “But I pray that whoever saw anything that night or heard anything, that they would come to justice, because Allyssa did not have to die like that.”
Police are investigating the fatal shooting of Allyssa Banks, a recent Largo High School graduate. (Family photo)
Lydia Banks recently made a plea to the public for help in her daughter’s case as police continue to investigate the death of the woman who was attending community college with the hope of becoming an emergency medical technician.
Allyssa Banks was out with her boyfriend in the early morning of Oct. 19. They had spent the day together. She had gotten her hair done earlier, and he was pampering her, Lydia Banks said.
But when they were about to get into their car about 1:45 a.m. near Swiss Gap and Prince Place in Largo, at least one person approached them with a gun, according to Prince George’s County police. Both of them were shot.
Banks’s boyfriend survived, but Allyssa Banks was pronounced dead at a hospital, police said.
Nicole Hubbard, a spokeswoman for Prince George’s County police, said detectives believe that someone in the public has information that could help them solve Banks’s case. Police are trying to determine the motive.
“These are true victims here,” Hubbard said. “We just want to bring comfort to Allyssa’s family.”
Banks was well-liked at Largo High School, which hosted remembrances in the days after her death, said principal Afie Mirshah. The choir sang songs dedicated to her, family and friends spoke about her bright personality, and students who remembered their former school president released balloons in her honor.
Mirshah remembered Banks as a dedicated, mature teen who was full of potential.
“She did everything to the best of her ability, and the best of her ability turned out to be really spectacular,” the principal said. “She was a very positive spirit.”
Mirshah said she and the Largo High community are shocked that Banks would be a victim of such a violent crime. “She never, ever got in trouble,” she said. “You would never, ever say the word ‘trouble’ and ‘Allyssa Banks’ in the same sentence.”
Deja Haley said she had known Banks since childhood. When Haley became a freshman at Largo, Banks took the time to walk her to all of her classes and help her feel comfortable with her new school.
Banks and her boyfriend had been dating for about eight months, Lydia Banks said. They were both homebodies who liked to study together, attend night classes or take care of the dog they had just adopted.
“They were two bright kids,” Lydia Banks said. “It was a relationship that blossomed right before your eyes.”
Lydia Banks said her daughter’s absence has been difficult, made even harder around the holidays. Her daughter loved the festivities of Christmas, cooking with her mother and picking out the perfect tree every year.
“It was a wonderful holiday for us,” Lydia Banks said. But not, she said, this year.
via Washington Post 
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PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY PARENTS, MARYLAND BLOG 