Monday evening, Brandon Hamilton gave his wife a giant card and presents for Valentine's Day. Tuesday night, he sat in the Maryland Shock Trauma Center and watched her die.
Angelia Hamilton, 22, was killed by a gunman who walked into a Laurel mobile phone store where she worked just after noon, asked to see phones, and then opened fire.
She was struck many times and died six hours later.
Last night, police were looking for the man who killed her.
"The only thing we talked about was moving back home and having kids," said Mr. Hamilton, 23. They grew up in small towns in Oklahoma 10 miles apart.
He said they wanted to "try to buy some land to put a house on. We hoped within the next five years."
They had been married 2 1/2 years. They met in Oklahoma in 1991, while Mr. Hamilton was home on a break from college.
Mr. Hamilton said they moved to Laurel in July 1993 to find better jobs and to be closer to Mr. Hamilton's brother, Steven, a jockey at the Laurel racetrack.
They lived with their cat in a one-bedroom apartment in the Laurel Square Apartments on the Prince George's County side of the city.
Mrs. Hamilton occasionally modeled for stores in the Laurel Centre Mall. She liked listening to music, watching Disney movies, going for walks and reading poetry.
"Everybody that knew her loved her," said Mrs. Hamilton's 25-year-old brother, Calvin. She has another brother, Lance, 14.
Police called the shooting an attempted robbery, but they said in a news release that "the reason the gunman opened fire remains a mystery."
Especially to Mr. Hamilton.
He said he was working Tuesday at Lightner Photography in Timonium. He was awaiting the usual noon phone call from her, but instead he got a call from one of her co-workers at Car Tel Mobile Communications, telling him his wife had been shot.
She was flown to the Shock Trauma Center and was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m.
A search that included state police and U.S. Park Police helicopters and county K-9 units was conducted along Laurel-Fort Meade Road and in a nearby housing development, Russett, but authorities were unable to track down the suspect.