A benefit fund has been set up for the two young sons of an Anytime Fitness member who was shot and killed last week while attempting to flee her estranged husband in an apparent murder-suicide.
Tensia Richard, 22, had been a member of the Anytime Fitness club in Cottage Grove, MN, for about a week before last Thursday’s shooting, Anytime Fitness spokesperson Mark Daly says. The gunman was her husband, Chevel Richard, 22. Richard was not a member of the club, Daly adds.
On Thursday afternoon, Tensia Richard finished her workout at the club, and as she was leaving, her husband approached her in the parking lot and fired a bullet, which penetrated the glass exterior of the club’s door. According to numerous local media reports, Richard fled and went into a nearby Jimmy John’s restaurant, where Chevel Richard gunned her down. Chevel Richard then shot himself and died at a local hospital Thursday night, according to reports.
About a half-dozen people were in the club at the time of the incident, Daly says, and no one was injured. A staff member immediately called 911 after the shooting. The club gave police investigators a copy of the surveillance video, which showed the gunman pursuing Richard in the parking lot and chasing her toward the restaurant.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Ms. Richard and her family,” Daly says.
Richard was the mother of two boys, 3 years old and 5 months. Donations to the Chavelo and Ace Martinez Benefit Fund can be made at any Twin Cities branch of the Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
Chevel Richard had had a violent past and threatened to kill his wife two years ago, according to information from an affidavit that was reported by the newspaper.