Within just three hours of being released from jail, a North Carolina man shot a young girl in the head, the Daily Mail reports.
Little seven-year old Aaliyah Norris perished after she sustained a bullet wound to her skull.
The Forest City Police Department confirmed that seven-year-old Aaliyah Norris died from her wounds after being shot while riding inside a vehicle on Oak Street.
Family members said that Aaliyah had been eating ice cream at the time she was killed.
Officers responded to the incident at the intersection on Tuesday and found two people removing Aaliyah from a car.
The girl was riding inside a car when the man shot her in the head.
So tragic was the scene that Aaliyah was eating ice cream when the bullet came in the window, according to the Daily Mail.
First responders rushed the girl to a local hospital after the man shot her in the head.
For a day, Aaliyah remained in critical condition.
But in the end, getting shot in the head by the man would end the little girl’s life.
The Forest City Dunbar Elementary School where Aaliyah was a student released a head shot of the girl on Thursday and stated that she had died thanks to the man’s actions, the New York Post reports.
After shooting the girl in the head, the gunman fled the scene of the crime in a black SUV.
Following an investigation that drew upon tips from community members, the authorities charged Shaquile Marshon Francis, 26, as the man who shot the girl in the head.
He had been picked up on unrelated charges and then released from jail three hours prior to the incident. The charges weren’t so unrelated, however, in the sense that he was first arrested for assault by pointing a gun at someone.
The Associated Press addressed the question of why the man shot into the particular car he did, thus hitting an innocent little girl in the head.
Francis’ release from jail and alleged immediate engagement in a subsequent crime speaks to a raging debate over the merits of cash bail as well as a nationwide effort to thin out prisons and jails to prevent outbreaks of the coronavirus among incarcerated individuals.
Francis was re-arrested on Wednesday.
The man was charged with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury with intent to kill, discharging a deadly weapon into occupied property inflicting serious bodily injury, and discharging a firearm within the city limits for allegedly shooting the girl in the head.
After Aaliyah died, the charges were elevated, NBC 4 WYFF reports.
A GoFundMe was created this week to initially raise money for medical costs, but it has since been changed to include funeral costs.
In addition to the GoFundMe, relatives and friends are selling plates of food on Saturday and Sunday to raise money
People can purchase #JusticeForCookie t-shirts from family friend Bethany Mae. The proceeds will go towards funeral costs.
