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HIGH POINT — When residents of the Lake Road Apartments — mostly female, single and mothers — came in the office to pay the rent, Angela West Holland told them what they needed to hear.

"Protect yourself," the apartment manager told Rosalin Caldwell, one of those residents. Holland didn't want any of the women living there to get mixed up with domestic violence, Caldwell said.

"Know the warning signs," Holland would say.

But it was Holland, 43, who was shot and killed early Sunday in her home at 302 Taylor Ave. by a man neighbors say was her boyfriend. The man then ran two miles to 214 E. Parkway Ave. and committed suicide in a stranger's backyard, shooting himself in the head with the same gun, police said.

Laymon Lavern Conner Jr., 29, killed Holland before 1 a.m. Sunday after the two argued late into Saturday night, said Lt. Steve Myers, spokesman for the High Point Police Department.

Conner got violent and shot her in the apartment, Myers said.

Dan Harrington, 83, lives at 214 E. Parkway Ave. with his daughter and son-in-law. He said he was awakened at 2:30 a.m. Sunday by police, who later told him they found a body in his backyard and thought the man committed suicide.

Harrington's neighbor saw a man run through his backyard, activating the security light, Harrington said. The neighbor at first took a flashlight and headed after the man but, after hearing a gunshot, called police, Harrington said.

At Lake Road Apartments, neighbors said "Miss Angela" was just what the neighborhood needed.

She would work with you if you had problems. She didn't put up with disorder. When she arrived to manage the subsidized housing development a year ago, she brought a lot of changes — all for the better, residents say.

"This place was kind of a mess," said Jeddy Johnson, 43, of High Point. He regularly checks on his mother, who lives in the complex. Before Holland started, Johnson worried about his mother sitting on her patio. "I feel safe now," he said about Holland's changes.

Holland got animal control to round up stray dogs. She had the trees and bushes trimmed. She wouldn't stand for drug use, loitering or driving on the grass.

She would frequently tell residents: "This is not the projects."

Some of the women who had started to feel a stronger connection with her found themselves wondering what her advice to them could have hidden about her own life.

"That's a shock for me," Caldwell said, "to know that she was going through the very thing that she was telling us to stay away from."

Contact Sonja Elmquist at 373-7090 or sonja.elmquist@news-record.com