15-year-old girl shot to death in Birmingham apartment was ‘a very rare child,’ grieving mother says

Cornelia Rose Lathan had so much to look forward to, so many plans for what was sure to be a bright future.

The 15-year-old was a rising sophomore at a charter school in Bessemer; she wanted to be a nurse, and a pilot, and maybe serve in the military.

All of those hopes and dreams ended two weeks ago when police say her mother’s ex-boyfriend opened fire on the family’s Birmingham apartment, leaving Cornelia dead and her 5-year-old brother, Roman, injured.

“It’s tough,’’ said Cornelia’s grieving mother, Rebekah Lathan. “She was a very rare child.”

Otis Lee Montgomery, 27, is charged with capital murder in Cornelia’s death, first-degree assault in the wounding of Roman, and shooting into an occupied dwelling.

The deadly shooting happened midday Wednesday, June 19, at Park Place apartments.

Birmingham Homicide June 19, 2024 — A 15-year-old girl was killed and a 5-year-old boy injured when police say a man fired into a Park Place apartment in Birmingham during a domestic incident.(Carol Robinson)

Cornelia and Roman were home that day because the summer program at Memorial Park - where Cornelia was a counselor and Roman a camper – was closed for the Juneteenth holiday.

Lathan, a Minor High School graduate who earned her political science degree from UAB, works remotely at home as a case manager for a personal injury law firm out of Boston.

Lathan had her home office set up in her bedroom to give her children free reign in the rest of the home. She also has a 12-year-old son, Daniel, who was visiting his father in Georgia at the time of the shooting.

She said she and Montgomery, with whom she is expecting a daughter, had argued the night before and again in the hours before the shooting.

“He had come by one time that morning making threats,’’ she said. Montgomery left before police arrived.

“I was at my desk working and he calls me, and we were arguing and the next thing you know I heard glass shatter.”

Cornelia Rose Lathan, 15, was shot to death in June 19 domestic incident at her family's Birmingham apartment. Her 5-year-old brother, Roman, was wounded.(Special to AL.com)

She left her room and went into the den area, as did Cornelia and Roman.

Montgomery was in the parking lot outside of the apartment and soon fired multiple shots, police said.

Cornelia was pronounced dead on the scene at 12:25 p.m.

Roman was taken to Children’s of Alabama with a gunshot wound to his femur. He cannot walk for at least the next six months and is using a wheelchair.

“We were all standing there together,’’ she said. “I can’t believe I wasn’t hit.”

She can’t believe any of it really happened.

“I know he gets,” she said, “but I never would have thought it would escalate to this.”

“You hear about it happening,” she said, “but to be in it is a completely different rodeo.”

Cornelia, Lathan’s first-born, has just finished the nineth grade at Alabama Aerospace and Aviation High Schook, a charter school in Bessemer, where she was an Honor Roll student.

“She was a really sweet spirit,’’ Lathan said, “an all-around sweet girl.”

Cornelia was volunteering as a counselor at Memorial Park.

“Even the people at Memorial Park were shocked. They were like, ‘This girl was an angel. Nobody volunteers to come and work with other kids,’’' Lathan said.

“She was serving her community,’’ Lathan said.

The teen was also a deep-thinker and had a strong faith. At the time of her death, she was reading “Understanding Your Place in God’s Kingdom” by Myles Munroe and she and her brother had chosen to be baptized together less than a year ago at New Bethlehem Baptist Church in Bessemer.

“She literally gave her life to Christ,’’ Lathan said.

Just before her untimely death, she was doing a 21-day fast to focus on her goals in life.

“We were working toward putting things in place – how to structure mini goals to meet the big goal,’’ Lathan said. “One of her biggest goals was for her to become self-sufficient by the age of 22. I told her it was very much doable.”

Cornelia was extremely to close to both her brothers. “They were inseparable,’’ she said.

She was also looking forward to birth of her baby sister, who is due any day. She even got to choose the name.

“The day before we had gone shopping for the baby because she was expectant of having a little sister,’’ Lathan said. “She wasn’t going to be the only girl anymore.”

Lathan said it’s been a painful couple of weeks.

“That was my baby,’’ she said. “We were inseparable.”

Roman, she said, has struggled in the aftermath.

“He and I will both need some trauma counseling,’’ she said. “He was standing right there. He saw the whole thing.”

“He’s a very intelligent 5-year-old,’’ she said.

Lathan has not been back to her apartment since the shooting. She said she’s been blessed with overwhelming support by her family, her church family and her friends.

“It breaks my heart,’’ she said, “that all of this has taken place.”

Lathan said she wants her daughter to be remembered for all that she was, and all that she would have been.

“At her service, people from her school were getting up and talking about how loving and caring she was,’’ she said. “She was beautiful, she was intelligent, and she served her community and her family.”