ATLANTA—The shooting death of an 8-year-old girl in Atlanta prompted a $10,000 reward for information as authorities searched on July 6 for at least two people who opened fire on the car she was riding in near a flashpoint of recent protests.
Police identified the girl killed on Saturday night as Secoriea Turner. And officers returned to the scene late Sunday to investigate another shooting, steps away from where Secoriea was shot, that left one person dead and two others injured, news outlets reported.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms called for justice in Secoriea’s death during an emotional news conference Sunday with the girl’s grief-stricken mother.
“You shot and killed a baby,” the mayor said. “And there wasn’t just one shooter, there were at least two shooters.”
“You can’t blame this on a police officer,” she added. “You can’t say this about criminal justice reform. This is about some people carrying some weapons who shot up a car with an 8-year-old baby in the car for what?”
“Enough is enough,” Bottoms continued. “If you want people to take us seriously and you don’t want us to lose this movement, we can’t lose each other.”
The shooting happened near the Wendy’s restaurant where a Black man, Rayshard Brooks, was killed by a white police officer on June 12 after failing a sobriety test, resisting arrest, and assaulting a police officer. He then stole the officer’s taser, and fled before turning to point the taser at the officer, appearing to shoot it at him. The fast food outlet was later burned by protesters, and the area has since become a site for frequent anti-police demonstrations.
An armed group took over the area around the Wendy’s earlier this month, making it what they called a police-free zone. Police officers removed the barriers late last month but they were put back up on July 4, Bottoms said.
Authorities said Secoriea was in the car with her mother and another adult when the driver tried to drive through illegally placed barricades to get to a parking lot in the area. Armed individuals blocking the entrance opened fire on the vehicle, striking it multiple times and striking the child, police said. The driver took Secoriea to Atlanta Medical Center but she did not survive.
“She was only 8 years old,” said her mother, Charmaine Turner. “She would have been on Tik Tok dancing on her phone, just got done eating. We understand the frustration of Rayshard Brooks. We didn’t have anything to do with that. We’re innocent. My baby didn’t mean no harm.”
The girl just wanted to get home to see her cousins, said her father, Secoriya Williamson.
“They say Black lives matter,” he said. “You killed your own.”
Police released a wanted poster announcing the $10,000 reward. The mayor urged anyone with information to come forward.
The mayor noted that protesters had damaged Georgia State Patrol headquarters in Atlanta in a separate incident early Sunday. She said the city’s 911 system was flooded with calls Saturday.
In addition to the shootings near the burned-out Wendy’s restaurant, Atlanta police said two other people were killed and more than 20 injured in gunfire and violence during the holiday weekend.
Epoch Times reporter Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
