Family Of 8-Year-Old Girl Shot Near Atlanta Protests Seeks Leads

The mother of an 8-year-old girl shot to death near the site of an earlier police shooting this summer says more information is needed about what happened.

At a news conference Friday, Charmaine Turner said her daughter Secoriea Turner was the loudest — and happiest — at holiday gatherings. This will be the first Christmas she’s spent without her.

The family has created a public service announcement that will run on local television in the Atlanta area.

A teen suspect was charged with felony murder and aggravated assault in the shooting, but his attorney said he was peacefully protesting and witnessed the shooting but did not open fire.

Those who may be responsible for Secoriea’s death are still at large, and leads “have been few and far between,” lawyers representing the family said in a statement Friday.

Secoriea was fatally shot on the Fourth of July while riding in an SUV with her mother and another adult near the Wendy’s restaurant where Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old Black man, was killed by a white police officer on June 12.

Makeshift barricades had been set up in the area after Brooks was killed, and armed men had been blocking roads in the area and turning some drivers away. The SUV Secoriea was in was trying to make a U-turn at one of the barricades when at least one gunman shot into the vehicle, police said.