‘He took my everything’: Inside the fatal shooting that killed Bolingbrook woman’s daughters, fiancé

Samiya Shelton and her boyfriend of two years, Byrion Montgomery, both 17, had just broken up over questions about his fidelity, the teen’s mother Tania Stewart said.

At one point that Sunday, Samiya told her mother, “It hurts and I was crying all night.” The mother and daughter were inside their kitchen that evening cooking dinner when Montgomery showed up at their Bolingbrook home, Stewart said.

Minutes later, Samiya; Stewart’s fiance, Cartez Daniels, 40; and 9-year-old Sanai Daniels all would be shot to death in their own home. Tania would be nearly killed.

“[Montgomery] took my rock. He took my everything,” Stewart, 34, said from her Downers Grove hospital bed on Saturday. “He was obsessed with her. I didn’t know that.”

Will County prosecutors have charged Montgomery with first degree murder in the shooting deaths of Cartez Daniels and the two girls, Samiya and Sanai. He’s also charged with attempted murder for shooting Tania Stewart multiple times during the bloody rampage, according to court records.

Stewart and her two sons, Cartez Junior, or CJ, 14, and Juelz, 3, were the only survivors of the incident. The two boys were not harmed in the incident, but Stewart said she learned they saw Montgomery stab Cartez Daniels after he had shot him.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the shootings, Tania Stewart offered Shaw Local News Network new details into the slayings that rocked a Bolingbrook neighborhood on March 5.

Bolingbrook police so far have been tight-lipped about details surrounding the shooting.

When asked Tuesday about Tania Stewart’s account, Lt. Brennan Woods said in an email that the department won’t discuss any details regarding an open and ongoing investigation.

On that Sunday, Montgomery had wanted to take back a phone he had given to Samiya, Tania Stewart said her daughter told her. She said she also learned from her daughter that Montgomery somehow knew she had been “talking with a dude” for several hours.

Later that evening, Samiya told her that Montgomery was in their backyard. That led to Stewart telling Cartez Daniels to go outside and either tell Montgomery to go home or see what’s going on with him, she said.

After a while, as Stewart and Samiya were in the kitchen cooking, they saw Montgomery at the screen door, with Cartez Daniels right behind him. Montgomery opened the door and asked for Samiya, she said.

“[Montgomery] goes, ‘You’re not going to come out, you’re not going to come out?’ My daughter goes, ‘No,’ and she backed up. He couldn’t see her. He walked in,” Stewart said.

Montgomery’s eyes were “bloodshot red,” Stewart said she noticed at the time.

She told Montgomery to go home. Montgomery had been asking for his phone, she said. Cartez Daniels grabbed him and tried to walk him out of the house and the two tussled.

She said when Cartez Daniels threw him out of the house, Montgomery shot him. Stewart said she was shot twice.

At one point, Stewart said she heard Cartez Daniels yelling at Montgomery, “No, Byrion, don’t do it, please don’t do it, bro.” She said she didn’t know where her other children were. She heard Montgomery firing shots in the garage, where Samiya was at the time.

Stewart said she jumped up and tried to open the patio door but it didn’t open despite repeated attempts. She said Montgomery came out of the garage and fired more shots at her. She suffered a gunshot wound to her right arm when she blocked her head.

After the shooting stopped, as she was lying wounded on the floor of her home, Stewart recalls everything going silent.

“I don’t hear no cries, I don’t hear no sounds. At this point, I’m like, ‘He killed my family,’ ” Stewart said in tears.

Stewart’s son told her that Montgomery, at one point during the shooting, held a gun to CJ’s head and walked with him in the home. She said her son told her that Cartez Daniels was still alive and crawling for Sanai Daniels, who had been shot, when Montgomery flipped their dining room table on top of the girl, grabbed a knife and stabbed Cartez Daniels multiple times in front of his sons.

CJ ran out of the house and called out for help but didn’t get a response from neighbors, his mother said.

“He ran to a school. No one helped,” Stewart said.

After wondering why she wasn’t hearing any sirens, she finally heard a voice say, “We’re here, 911, we’re here.” She also heard voices say there were three DOAs, or dead on arrival. She didn’t know which three people they were referencing.

Stewart later woke up in the hospital. She discovered Sanai Daniels had died there.

“And I was supposed to die here too, but I lived and now my girls are gone,” Stewart said, while crying.

Stewart said she thought what was going on between Montgomery and Samiya was “puppy love.”

Stewart said Samiya and Montgomery met on her 15th birthday. During that time, Stewart and her family treated Montgomery as if he was one of their own and included him in many family activities.

Stewart said she used to brag to her friends that her daughter had a good boyfriend who doesn’t drink or smoke. She said she never saw any anger in Montgomery and he seemed like a “clean kid.”

But after further reflection, Stewart said she now thinks Montgomery was obsessed with her daughter. She said while Montgomery was a frequent presence in their home, there were times when she would catch him “creeping around when he didn’t need to.”

“I think he used to be at windows when we didn’t know. … he knew everything about us,” she said.

Stewart said her fiance, Cartez, accepted Montgomery and “treated him like a son.”

When asked about Samiya, Stewart described her daughter as “my twin” who was “so pretty.”

She said Samiya didn’t have too many friends because Montgomery was “always in their business” so she chose to be friends with him.

Stewart said she was looking forward to her daughter getting older and being with her more.

“She was about to get her license,” Stewart said.

Sanai Daniels was “funny,” Stewart said with a smile. She was the kind of child who would say, “Mommy, you’re so pretty, I made you a sandwich,” and asked her if she wanted some juice.

“And if I don’t eat it, she’d say, ‘Mommy you didn’t eat it, I made that,’ ” Stewart said.

Cartez Daniels, who Stewart said she has been with since she was 18, was a loving father who owned a trucking company, loved to rap and was a provider who took care of his whole family.

While crying, Stewart said her fiance was the “coolest dude ever, so cool.”