An 8-year-old girl was shot and killed on the Fourth of July after at least two people in a crowd of armed people opened fire on a car she was riding in near a flash point of recent protests in Atlanta, authorities said Sunday.
Police identified the girl as Secoriea Turner, and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms called for justice during an emotional news conference Sunday with the girl’s grief-stricken mother.
The shooting happened near the Wendy’s restaurant where an African American man, Rayshard Brooks, was killed by an Atlanta police officer on June 12. The fast food outlet was later burned, and the area has since become a site for frequent demonstrations against police brutality.
Authorities said the mother had attempted to drive through illegally placed barricades in the area when the vehicle came under fire Saturday night.
“You shot and killed a baby,” the mayor said, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “And there wasn’t just one shooter, there were at least two shooters.”
In a statement Sunday, police said the girl was in a car with her mother and a friend of the mother when they got off Interstate-75/85 onto University Avenue and were trying to enter a parking lot nearby. They ran into a group of armed individuals who had blocked the entrance. – READ MORE
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