‘We just can’t believe it’: Family mourns during holidays as 2 brothers killed just days apart

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5/Gray News) — Their Christmas tree still sparkles with lights and decorations, but the joy of the holiday has been ripped away from a Phoenix family dealing with two tragedies.

“My kids, my daughter, my sons, they can’t believe it,” said Mary Ochoa, who lost two grandsons. “We’re all grieving.”

A week before Christmas, 40-year-old Brandon Smith was shot and killed near a car wash off 40th Street and McDowell Road in Phoenix. Three days later, his younger brother Mikey Ochoa, 26, was killed when a driver ran him over while he was crossing the street near Southern Avenue and 48th Street.

“Very heartbreaking,” said Valencia Sloan. “We just can’t believe it. Our oldest brother, then next thing you know our youngest brother, one thing after another.”

Family members Wednesday said Christmas will never be the same.

They remember Smith as a big-hearted, kind, loving man who was always happy and could always make you laugh. Mikey Ochoa was considered outgoing, silly and goofy, someone who would do anything for his friends and family.

“My heart was just broken inside,” said Mary Ochoa. “I just cried and cried for two days.”

What’s made the family’s loss even more difficult is that they’re having to scramble to put together two funerals.

“We’re doing the best we can to come up with all the expenses and raise money,” Sloan said.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family with funeral expenses.

“I’d say there’s a lot of sadness,” Sloan said. “Everyone is grieving in their own way during the holidays.”

So far, no arrests have been made in either tragedy.

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