Mareja Pratt Elsik sophomore HS student shot dead, two others injured in ongoing social media beef. No arrests as extended family members eyed.
A Houston high school sophomore was shot and killed – and two others injured – in what family members say was the culmination of an ongoing social media feud.
Mareja Pratt, 16, was with her cousin, Dekambrie Pratt, 20, and Anthony Thornabar, 22, Monday afternoon outside the Wilcrest Baptist Church when a man and three female companions got out of a car.
The man fired a gun up to 15 times and shot Mareja, her cousin, and Thornabar, police said.
The four suspects then fled.
Mareja who attended Elsik High School, died at the scene. Her two companions were hospitalized and underwent surgery, reported KTRK. Both are expected to recover.
‘It was just jealousy. You killed her over jealousy,’
The incident has led to Mareja’s family saying that relatives might have been involved in the fatal shooting.
‘They thought that extended family members may have had a role in this shooting,’ said Jodi Silva, a spokesperson with the Houston Police Department told the dailymail.
An Instagram feud went on for months before threats turned deadly, family and police told KTRK.
‘She was… just keep picking on her on Instagram, sending people her pictures, saying she was a prostitute, and just messing with her and messing with her to the point my cousin used to cry about it,’ said Kira Walton, Mareja’s cousin.
Then on Monday, police said, Mareja went with Thornabar and her cousin Dekambrie Pratt to the church down the street from her home to confront her alleged harassers.
‘It was just jealousy. You killed her over jealousy,’ said Walton.
Added the distraught cousin, ‘I feel like my whole soul was ripped out. This is hard on my family. So hard.’
Walton said her cousin had hoped to go on to college after high school.
‘A very sad time where a 16-year-old female lost her life unnecessarily over something that seems to be pretty trivial, over a social media beef,’ Houston Police Commander David Angelo told KPRC.
Police are seeking suspects and have made no arrests. Police said witnesses saw a black man exit a red Chrysler 200 and fire up to 15 shots during the confrontation.
Anyone with information related to the shooting is asked to call (713) 308-3600.
