More Than a Number: Remembering Mona Abdinur, 18 4274

It was never unusual for Tamika Hoy to step out of her parents’ home and walk the familiar route through central Fresno.

She had done it countless times before, heading toward her favorite eatery near McKinley and Normal Avenues, moving through streets she knew by heart.

Each time, she always came back home.

“She’d done that many times before,” her father said quietly, choosing to keep his name private, as if words alone might expose wounds still too raw to touch.

But this time was different.

“This time,” her mother said, her voice heavy with grief, “she was coming back home and that’s when it happened, around 2:15.”

Shortly after 2 o’clock Thursday afternoon, officers with the

Fresno Police Department were dispatched to what was first described as a medical call.

A woman was lying in an alleyway near Normal Avenue and Mayfair Boulevard in central Fresno.

When officers arrived, the reality became painfully clear.

“Twenty-five-year-old Tamika Hoy was found down in the alleyway suffering from what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the upper head,” said

Brian Valles, a lieutenant with the department.

Tamika was rushed to Community Regional Medical Center in critical condition, her life hanging in a fragile balance as doctors fought to save her.

When her parents arrived at the hospital, fear and hope collided in the same breath.

Her mother demanded to see her daughter.

“They let me in,” she said, “and I just broke down and cried.”

For three days, Tamika remained hospitalized, her family holding on to the smallest signs of hope, praying for a recovery that never came.

Tamika Hoy died from her injuries three days later.

“They took my child away from me,” her mother said, the words breaking under the weight of finality.

In the days following Tamika’s death, Fresno Police provided an update that revealed a painful obstacle standing between grief and justice.

Investigators said the biggest challenge in the case has been limited cooperation from witnesses.

“Detectives have been in that area since Thursday, January 22nd,” Lt. Valles said.

“We’ve received very little assistance from any witnesses in that incident.”

According to police, Tamika was walking through the alleyway when she was approached by an unknown number of individuals.

Moments later, she was shot.

The people responsible vanished into silence, leaving behind a family desperate for answers and a community haunted by what went unseen.

“It hurts so much,” her mother said.

“They just don’t know they ripped my heart out.”

Before Tamika ever stepped outside that day, there was a moment that now lives forever in her mother’s memory.

A hug.

A few simple words exchanged between mother and daughter.

“I hugged my baby and I told her I loved her,” her mother said.

“She hugged me back and said, ‘Mama, I love you, too.’”

Those were the last words she ever spoke to her daughter.

For Tamika’s parents, that final embrace has become both a comfort and a source of unimaginable pain.

A reminder of love shared.

A reminder of everything stolen.

Police say they are continuing to canvas the area, searching for surveillance footage and hoping someone will come forward with information that could reveal a motive or identify those involved.

Every unanswered question deepens the ache left behind.

Tamika Hoy was more than a police report or a statistic.

She was a daughter who came home every time.

A young woman walking a path she trusted.

A life that should not have ended in an alleyway in broad daylight.

As the investigation continues, her family waits, caught between grief and the hope that someone, somewhere, will finally speak.

Because silence protects the guilty.

And Tamika deserves more than silence.