Aaliyah Norris Forest City, North Carolina 7 year old girl shot dead by Shaquille Marshon Francis in mistaken identity. Man had been released from jail 3 hours earlier after having been arrested earlier that day for for assault by pointing a gun.
A 7 year old North Carolina girl has died after allegedly being shot by a man who had been freed from jail just three hours earlier.
Aaliyah Grace Norris of Forest City was shot while riding inside a vehicle on Oak Street on Tuesday just on 5 p.m. 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 young girl was transported to a local hospital where she was listed in critical condition, only to mortally succumb to her injury one day later WSPA reported.
The Forest City Police Department in a release said the girl incurred a single gunshot to the head.
Detectives learned that the suspected offender in the incident was Shaquille Marshon Francis, 26, of Forest City. The man was reported to have fled in a black SUV following the shooting.
Come Wednesday, Forest City Police arrested Francis without incident.
He is now being charged with murder. Bond was reassessed at $10 million.
Forest City Police Chief Chris LeRoy told WLOS that Francis was released from jail on unrelated charges just three hours before allegedly shooting Norris.
Arrest records from Rutherford County reportedly show Francis was arrested that day for assault by pointing a gun, before being released. It remained unclear if Francis had a gun license.
It’s unclear why Francis allegedly shot into the vehicle, but a relative on Facebook suggested he targeted the wrong vehicle.
Forrest City Dunbar Elementary shared a photo of Aaliyah on Thursday and announced her tragic passing.
A warrior remembered
‘The Forest City – Dunbar family is incredibly saddened at the loss of one of our students Aaliyah Norris. Please keep her family and friends in your prayers,’ they wrote.
‘Today my niece Aaliyah Grace Norris was shot and is in critical condition in Spartanburg hospital. This is something that has broke my heart because they shot into the wrong car,’ wrote her uncle, LJ miller.
‘He shot at the wrong car, it was a car that’s was full of kids. Now look a sweet beautiful little girl that done nothing wrong got shot because stupid people with guns.’
Miller also paid tribute to the young girl who he called a ‘warrior.’
‘Aaliyah Grace Norris was a warrior and she fought and fought but the good LORD call her home today. Big Granny and papa was waiting for her at the gate and the time they are having up there in heaven,’ he wrote.
‘To Breanna and Teddy I’m sorry this happen but just know that she is in heaven with the lord and watching down on us with others that have pass on.
Mistaken identity
A family friend shared a Facebook post that also suggested the girl’s shooting death was a case of mistaken identity.
‘When the words “they’re taking my grand baby off of life support” come out of your close friends mouth, and you can hear the pain and devastation choking him up. If there was anything in this world I could do to change this for you guys, I’d do it without a second thought,’ posted Bethany Mae.
‘A case of mistaken identity has cost an innocent child her life.. it has cost a mother her child, a grandfather his princess, a little girl and a little boy their sister.. a father his daughter.. Aunts and uncles their Niece.. a case of mistaken identify has caused a war..
‘This baby will never get to sit and gossip with her friends about their crushes, will never have a first kiss, never meet her Prince Charming, never know the soul shaking love of looking into the eyes of her freshly born baby.
‘A case of mistaken identity has robbed her of all of the things little girls dream of.’
A GoFundMe was created this week to initially raise money for medical costs, but it has since been changed to include funeral costs.
