Vigil held for woman murdered during EZ Mart robbery

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, AR – Friends and family held a candlelight vigil Monday night for 29-year-old Akiya Egeston, the woman who was shot and killed Saturday night during the robbery of an EZ Mart.

Nearly 100 people showed up to remember the mother of two whose life was taken too soon.

“She was an amazing person,” said Brian Egeston, Akiya’s brother in-law. “This was not just a person working behind a register. This was a superhero who does not deserve this kind of outcome in her life.”

North Little Rock Police are looking for three men involved in the robbery, one of whom may be involved with another armed robbery of a Citgo gas station in Jacksonville, just hours after Egeston was killed.

“We do feel there is a connection in our aggravated robbery/homicide and Jacksonville's aggravated robbery,” says Sgt. Brian Dedrick, with the North Little Rock Police Department.

A third armed robbery, this time in the parking lot of a Doubletree gas station in Cabot, is also being looked to see if the same suspects are involved.

"Right now we don't know if it's related to the Jacksonville and North Little Rock incidents, but they're trying to do the best they can to get the right facts for it," says Sgt. Keith Graham, with the Cabot Police Department.

Dedrick says North Little Rock detectives are following several tips after putting surveillance pictures out to the public. Those close to Egeston hope the suspects are caught soon before they strike again.

Maria Currie, Akiya’s mother, hopes the men who killed her daughter are caught soon, before they strike again. “Hopefully somebody is going to have a heart and they're going to speak out."