Alabama grandmother gunned down at Mother’s Day party had ‘servant’s heart’; $16,000 reward offered

A Montgomery woman fatally shot in front of her grandchildren during a Mother’s Day gathering at her home is being remembered as having a servant’s heart.

About 40 people were gathered at the Cobbinton Road home of 64-year-old Gloria Crews Sunday in south Montgomery. Earlier that morning, friends said, Crews sang in the choir at her church.

“We have lost such a wonderful person in our community,’’ said longtime friend and employer Carron Morrow. “I truly want to celebrate the Christian servant that she was. She didn’t have a bad bone in her body.”

Central Alabama Crime Stoppers on Thursday announced that reward money for information in Crews’ slaying now stands at $16,000, which includes $15,000 from Montgomery City Council members Cornelius Calhoun, Glen Pruitt, and Oronde Mitchell.

Crews, who lost her minister father two months ago and was still the caretaker of her 84-year-old mother, was hosting dozens of family members Sunday when, about 7 p.m., a gunman or gunmen approached the home and opened fire.

A bullet meant for someone else struck Crews in the neck as she was trying to usher children to safety inside the house.

“She heard the shots, and she was trying to save all these little children,’’ Morrow said.

Crews fell to her lawn, where she was pronounced dead.

“My heart is just broken that these children had to watch the light of their life die in front of them for a senseless murder,’’ Morrow said.

Morrow is the owner of Personal Touch Events, which has catered for every Alabama governor since George Wallace.

She said Crews was just 16 years old when they met, and Morrow hired her.

“Gloria had not only become one of my very best friends, we traveled together and all sorts of things,’’ Morrow said.

“She had a servant’s heart for the Lord,’’ she said. “We always prayed prior to our jobs to say, ‘Folks we’re not working for Carron Morrow, we’re working for the Lord and that’s a lot higher power to serve.”

“That’s the way she did everything,’’ Morrow said. “She went overboard trying take care of her family.”

Crews often took in younger family members and, at the time of her death, was helping to raise a 6-year-old nephew. She said the family is 350-strong in the community.

“She has worked three jobs in order to keep him dressed nicely and in school,’’ she said. “She’d already had him up in front of a congregation.”

Crews’ brother called Morrow Sunday immediately after the shooting to break the news to her.

“She had just texted me an hour before to wish me a Happy Mother’s Day,’’ Morrow said. “I immediately started crying. It was just about overwhelming.”

Morrow plans to attend the Montgomery City Council next week to try to address gun violence in the community.

“The devil will not win this battle and leave a seed of hate in this family’s hearts, especially these little children,’’ Morrow said.

“There was never a time that she left this house that she didn’t hug mama or me and we always said I love you,’’ she said. “We were sisters in Christ.”

“I’ve called her name so many times,’’ Morrow said. “I’m going to miss her.”

Crews is among 22 homicides so far this year in Montgomery. Of those, arrests have been made in 12 of the slayings, but no one has been arrested in Crews’ killing.

Anyone with information is asked to call Central Alabama Crime Stoppers at 334-215-STOP (7867) or 1-833-AL1-STOP (251-7867). Texts can also be submitted through the agency’s P3-tips app.