A 15-year-old girl was shot dead at the entrance of a building in the 1000 block of Citizens Parkway and Jonesboro Road in Atlanta.
Laila Renee Harris was enjoying a birthday party that was attended by hundreds of high school students when she was shot by a gunman.
Police speculate that the culprit may have been kicked out of the event before he fired multiple rounds.
Clayton police spokesperson Julia Isaac said during a press conference: “I assume when others were scattering and running, she was caught in the crossfire.”
Isaac added that at least one student should know the identity of the gunman.
A fundraiser was created to help support Harris’ grieving mother.
Kailyn Crawford set up the GoFundMe page and said Harris was “just being a teenager” when she was shot.
“She was tragically killed while attending a birthday party just doing what any fifteen-year-old likes to do, trying to have fun, and now we’ve lost her to a senseless act of violence,” Crawford wrote.
People have donated over $4,000 to help send the teen’s body to her hometown in Saint Louis.
Cops are now asking for the public’s help in finding the potential suspect.
“I just ask that the parents know where their teenagers are,” Isaac said.
“We get multiple reports a week of juveniles running away or sneaking away from home and then they come back a couple of hours later, or days later,” Isaac continued.
“It’s like a revolving door, because we do have mostly teenagers that break into cars. If they see guns inside of the cars, they’re going to break the window to get that gun and, in turn, they use that gun to commit another crime. So, it’s a full circle.”
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