WELLSVILLE, Ohio - Wellsville police have identified the mother who was found shot and killed on Tuesday afternoon.

Police say someone kicked in the door of the apartment at 407 Main Street some time early in the morning and shot Destiny Penny, 22, while her two young children were upstairs, unharmed and unaware of anything that was happening. 

For Wellsville resident Brenda Ketchum, the thought of a young mother being gunned down in her hometown is almost too much.

"I grew up here as a child. You don't hear of that down here," Ketchum said Tuesday.

"We found evidence that she had been shot," said police chief Ed Wilson. "And a small-caliber handgun that we have."

The rare display of such violence caught most everyone in this village of some 3,300 people by surprise - especially Ketchum, who moved back to the area this Spring.

"We knew Cleveland just wasn't the place to be anymore. Then when you come down here, and this happens, it just goes to show that when we bring people into our families these days, you just gotta check 'em out more," Ketchum said.

While police don't yet know who took the woman's life, they're confident she did.

"We've got people of interest," Chief Wilson said. "Shouldn't be too hard to finish this one out."

More information may come as early as Wednesday, but not soon enough for the folks who still walked the streets of their hometown on a cool fall evening - albeit a bit more anxious until the killer is caught.

"Some people just don't have no respect for human life, and that's everything," Ketchum said. "God gave us life...we as a people, we don't have the right to take it away."

Travis Sullivan, the brother of Penny, told 21 News he wants the community to remember his sister as a great mother with "a heart of gold."

"She was the greatest mother any child could ask for. She loved her kids more than life itself, all four of them, and she was one of the sweetest people you could meet," Sullivan said "She had a heart of gold, would do anything for anyone and help anyone that needed it. She loved her family and we all loved her. Twenty-six is way too young to go. I hope they find the one responsible and give my sister some justice. She didn't deserve to die at 26, and her four kids didn't deserve to lose their mother."

Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations is assisting Wellsville police in their investigation.