Associated Press – July 5, 2020
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.
“At some point, someone in that group opened fire on the vehicle, striking it multiple times and striking the child who was inside,” the statement read. The driver drove the girl to Atlanta Medical Center but she did not survive.
Police said they are seeking help from the public to identify those involved and released a wanted poster saying a person all dressed in black and another in a white T-shirt were being sought.
The mayor said there have been problems with protesters in the area putting up barriers to close off the street. She said she received a message that the barriers were back up less than an hour before she was informed that the 8-year-old girl had died.
“An 8-year-old girl was killed last night because her mother was riding down the street,” Bottoms said. “If Secoriea was not safe last night, none of us are safe.”
The mayor urged anyone with information about the shooting to come forward.
Police said two other people, in addition to the 8-year-old, were killed and more than 20 people were injured in incidents of gunfire and violence during the long holiday weekend.
The mayor said the city’s 911 system was flooded with calls Saturday night and pointed to protesters who damaged a Georgia State Patrol headquarters in Atlanta in a separate incident early Sunday. But she said the city’s police force, though tasked by the weekend’s shootings, did not have problems with large numbers of police officers calling in sick. That had been a problem in the days after murder charges were filed against one of the officers in the Brooks shooting.
Ironic how BLM until a protestor for BLM kills a black child!
So get rid of the police they say, yet such armed thugs like these two who shot at an innocent person and her child, for the sole reason of disobeying their tyranny and illegal demands are the alternative to a police force (once again the irony against police tyranny who are called a law unto themselves…)
I would rather take police tyranny with less than 500 blacks murdered each year, a large majority of those 500 being law breaking cretins who cry innocence when arrested, yet happy to resist arrest or try to get away and end up dead.
500 is a small number compared to how many blacks are killed by fellow blacks in postcode rivalry, gang warwafe, drug related.
Imagine how many more would be killed if there was no longer any police to arrrest and put in jail the criminal elements, if there was just tribal warlords who administered justice.
Look at the justice in a few weeks of running a small area of Seattle by the self appointed warlord, rapes, murders and beatings, the tip of the iceberg of what is yet to be reported.
Obama Hails from Chicago and in his 8 years in office never spoke up or out against the Violence in Chicago.
Also the Media have not even spoke out on this shooting death of a 8 year old in Chiraq.
Nope Doesnt suit theyre narrative of White Supremacy.
Chicago Pastor Corey Brooks has called for the Military to be sent in.
Media Silence.
What a disgrace. Horrible. And excellent commentary above by Mojo Jojo.
As sad and terrible as the shooting of that child is, it may have spared more pain. I can sometimes see the future; took one look at the girl, and it was crystal clear she was doomed from the get-go. Not because she was black, but because she was clearly already ghetto with a capital G. She was 8 and already looking like a hood version of Aunt Jemima for God’s sake. Her “parent”, I’m gonna take a wild guess the sperm donor baby daddy wasn’t in the picture, already failed that child miserably.