9-Year-Old Girl Shot While Doing Homework in Ferguson, Suspect at Large
St. Louis police are still searching for the person who opened fire into a home in Ferguson, Missouri Tuesday night, killing a 9-year-old girl while she was doing homework in her mother's bedroom.
Police say that at least five bullets flew into the home around 9:30 p.m., striking and killing Jamyla Bolden and wounding her 34-year-old mother in the leg, reports The Washington Post.
Following the incident, Jamyla's father James plead to those with information about the shooting to come forward.
"Do it for a 9-year-old child that didn't even get to see the rest of the world," Bolden told KMOV.
"You have a 9-year-old child on her mother's bed doing homework and a bullet strikes her," said Ferguson police Sgt. Dominica Fuller during a news conference Thursday. "Our concern is to get this person off the street."
Jamyla's grandmother, who owns the home, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch she ran into the bedroom after she heard the gunshots.
"I kept holding and holding her," the grandmother said, adding that she did not want to publicize her name out of fear for her safety. "I still have her blood on my hands. She was still breathing. I was telling her to just breathe."
Police are investigating to determine if the shots were fired from a car or from someone standing outside the home. However, they do believe that the shooter was in close range to the home. A motive is still unclear.
According to The Associated Press, the shooting took place at a small ranch home on a street that intersects with Canfield Drive, which is where unarmed African American teen Michael Brown was notoriously killed in 2014 by a white police officer.
"We all have to work collectively to heal this community and this family," said Ferguson Interim Police Chief Andre Anderson, according to The Washington Post.
"There needs to be a reevaluation of human life: (whether) black, white, young, seasoned, whether in Ferguson, or areas considered affluent," Pastor Willis Johnson told KMOV. "This has to stop. This epidemic of lost life under false pretense and of no real significant reason has to change."
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