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Shantelle Reid was living in fear that her boyfriend would kill her, family members said Tuesday, the day after police say she was shot and killed by Ryan Robinson, her boyfriend of seven months.
Reid's family said the two had been dating since October and their relationship had been rocky and abusive from the start.
"She was cut off from family," said Joseph Hartvigsen, who dated Reid for several years and is the father of their 3-year-old son. "He would always pistol-whip her."
Hartvigsen said Robinson, 31, and Reid, 25, met through mutual friends. He said Reid would tell him that Robinson abused her, but said she was too scared to leave the relationship, fearing he would hurt her or her son. Eventually, it got to the point where Robinson would not allow her to leave the house.
"She had no where else to go," Hartvigsen said. "It came to the point where she couldn't go. One time she had to sleep in the garage, on the concrete, with no shoes."
A family acquaintance said Robinson had been living at his parent's house, 6341 S. 725 East, in Murray. Reid's family said she had been living there off and on throughout the couple's relationship.
Police say Reid was shot to death Monday shortly after neighbors reported seeing Robinson beating her in a yard close to his parents' home.
Police went to the house about 3 p.m., said Murray police Officer Kenny Bass. Bass said police spoke with Reid and Robinson, but he said they both denied fighting.
"Both of them completely, adamantly denied it," Bass said.
The couple told police they had only argued, and since officers did not find any injuries on Reid, they left.
"There was no probable cause for the officer to act," Bass said.
But when police received another call about trouble at the same home, an officer was sent back to the scene.
At around 4:45 p.m., an officer arrived and saw Robinson walking in the street, drinking a beer. Neighbors said the officer told Robinson to show him his hands, but Robinson responded with profanities. The officer drew his gun, and Robinson fled through the parking lot of a nearby LDS wardhouse, with the officer in pursuit.
The officer chased Robinson to Mount Vernon Drive, the next street to the west. There, the officer shot and wounded Robinson, neighbors said.
Police have given no other details about the shooting. Neighbors said that on the ground where Robinson was shot there was a handgun and another can of beer.
Robinson was taken to the hospital; he is expected to survive.
Afterward, officers entered Robinson's home and found Reid shot to death.
Family members said Reid had plans to donate her kidney to her brother, Jay Reid, who has kidney failure. They were a perfect match, but unfortunately, her body had been in the home too long after her death to save the organ, they said.
She was close to her brother, who lives in St. George, and often talked of leaving Robinson to live with him. But Jay Reid's girlfriend, Amber Matters, said Shantelle Reid feared Robinson would come find her.
Matters said Reid would call her brother often but sometimes would say she was not able to speak on the phone.
"He [Robinson] would listen to her phone conversations," Matters said.
Hartvigsen said Reid loved caring for their son. She loved children, he said, and having their son was the best thing that ever happened to her.
Reid's grandmother, Laraine Reid, said the young boy had been living with her in her West Jordan home for the past two years. Her granddaughter lived with her for a year, she said, but then moved out and left her son with her grandmother to keep him safe.
"It felt good that she trusted us to take care of [her son]," Laraine Reid said. "She didn't want him to be around a bad situation."
Hartvigsen described Reid as a good person who was always caring. He said he had heart failure while she was eight months pregnant with their son. She still took care of him, helping him bathe, and visited him in the hospital every day. He said that while they have not been a couple in some time, he felt "ex-boyfriend" didn't describe his relationship with her.
"She was the love of my life," he said. "She loved with all her heart. I don't consider myself her ex-boyfriend. She was my world."