07:25 PM EDT on Thursday, August 18, 2005

By GLENN COUNTS / 6NEWS

6NEWS

Teresia Boulware was robbed with her 9-year-old daughter standing next to her.

There are thousands of stories behind any robbery. Thankfully, it is a rare event when a child is involved. If something is rare, that means it has happened at least once. Last Friday a Charlotte 9-year-old became one of those rare cases.

"When I initially saw the gun and looked in his eyes I did think that my life was gone," said robbery victim Teresia Boulware.

It was the worst moment of Boulware's life, unfortunately she had to share it with her daughter Rodaja, 9.

"She started screaming immediately when she saw the gun rise to my face," Boulware said.

Boulware was getting out of her SUV at Freedom Mall when she dropped her phone. As she picked it up two robbers were waiting. One of the men pointed his gun at Rodaja --to quiet her.

"She was screaming to the top of her lungs and she was crying and shaking," Boulware said.

Boulware and her daughter were not hurt, but Rodaja has not been the same in the week following the hold up. She is receiving counseling.

"She won’t go outside by herself. She wants me to come outside and watch her play or watch her ride her bike. She won’t even sleep in her own bedroom," said Boulware.

Boulware said her daughter is scared the men, still on the run, will come back.

"I know I can get up every morning and I can go to work, pay a mortgage, make a car payment and make sure my daughter has everything she wants,” Boulware said. “Her father, stepfather and her grandparents all of us do the same thing. I don’t feel like it's right for them to have the opportunity or the choice to take what we work so hard for."

Boulware now carries a firearm. She said she would have used it when the robber pointed the gun at her daughter.

"I would have killed him,” said Boulware. “I would be in jail at this moment because I wouldn’t risk the life of my child for anyone."

Robbery investigators have been working on this case, but at this point no resolution is in sight.