Laila Renee’ Harris 15 year old Marietta, Atlanta teen girl shot dead attending birthday party after gunman kicked out of party returned with gun and opened fire. Victim caught in cross-hairs. No arrests.
An Atlanta teenage girl was shot dead while attending a birthday party after a gunman who was made to leave returned sometime later and opened fire at the ‘packed’ reverie.
Laila Renee’ Harris, 15, of Marietta was found dead by police at the entrance of an event hall located in the 1000 block of Citizens Parkway and Jonesboro Road on Saturday at around 11am. Police arrived at the building after receiving a call about a shooting.
Cops speculate the shooter may have been kicked out of the party before he returned with an accomplice and fired multiple rounds. There were no additional victims. The event was said to have included up to 100’s of guests who attended Clayton High School and other surrounding high schools.
‘I assume when others were scattering and running, she was caught in the crossfire,’ Clayton police spokesperson Julia Isaac said at a press conference.
Isaac said that at least one student should know the identity of the shooter but didn’t disclose potential suspects.
Revolving door of gun violence
A GoFundMe account created to support Laila Harris’s mother was set up on Sunday. Organizer Kailyn Crawford wrote that Harris was just being a teenager when she was killed.
‘She was tragically killed while attending a birthday party just doing what any fifteen-year-old likes to do, trying to have fun, and now we’ve lost her to a senseless act of violence,’ Crawford wrote.
Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying potential suspects. Isaac urged parents to keep an eye on their children, and blamed juvenile car break-ins as to how young people get weapons.
‘I just ask that the parents know where their teenagers are,’ she said. ‘We get multiple reports a week of juveniles running away or sneaking away from home and then they come back a couple of hours later, or days later.
‘It’s like a revolving door, because we do have mostly teenagers that break into cars. If they see guns inside of the cars, they’re going to break the window to get that gun and, in turn, they use that gun to commit another crime. So, it’s a full circle.’
Police said the shooting remains under investigation as of Dec. 5.