NBA Star "World" B. Free's Ex-Lover Fatally Shot In New York

NEW YORK (CBS/WCBS) Audrey Johnson, a longtime former companion of NBA All-Star Lloyd "World" B. Free, was killed in Brooklyn while trying to stop an assault outside her family's home.

Police said Johnson, 51, had just come home when she heard about a confrontation on the sidewalk in front of her building. She went outside to see what was happening.

Her niece, Jeromeka Johnson, told CBS New York affiliate WCBS-TV that the victim, who lives in East Orange, N.J., had returned to her childhood home to cook Sunday night dinner.

She heard that three men were assaulting her niece's boyfriend.

When she went outside to help him, she was shot once in the head and pronounced dead at the scene.

Her 14-year-old nephew was shot in the leg.

Johnson was a longtime companion of former NBA All-Star Lloyd "World" B. Free of the Philadelphia 76ers and other teams in the late 70s. She is remembered as a loving, generous person.

"My aunt was a very, very nice lady. Everybody knew her for her giving. That's all she did, was give, give, give. We could go to her house. We've been to 76ers games. If there's a game in Philly, we're there. She got the tickets for us to go there, come out here, pick us up in a limo, all of that. She's a very good person," Jeromeka told the New York station.

The nephew who was shot was in stable condition at Kings County Hospital.

Police are still searching for the gunman and the two others involved in the fatal assault.

Story Contributed by CBS Affiliate WCBS-TV.