DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A grieving mother says her daughter was just shy of turning 16 years old when she was caught in the crossfire of a drive-by shooting outside a DeKalb County convenience store Wednesday morning.
Investigators said Keaira Palmer, 15, was an innocent bystander in the incident off Glenwood Road.
"She was just supposed to be going to the store to get a Sprite, a bag of hot chips and a Slim Jim," Palmer’s mother, Lawanda Riley, told Channel 2’s Nicole Carr.
When Riley got home from work Tuesday night, she let her 15-year-old daughter head to a nearby friend's house and the store.
“And she never came back home. And she never will," Riley said.
Palmer was shot to death around 12:30 a.m. DeKalb County police say she and three men, ages 18, 19 and 25, were walking out of the convenience store toward an apartment complex, just feet way from Palmer's front door.
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"The scene dictates there was a running gun battle going on. Unknown if the shots were fired from the vehicles, or if they were fired on foot, and at this time there's a strong indication that it was gang related," Capt. J.A. Lewis, with the DeKalb County Police Department, said.
But Riley said her daughter was an innocent bystander and she'd tried texting to check on Keaira.
"Next thing I know, I heard the shots. I was in the living room, I heard the shots. And my mind was saying, ‘I hope my baby ain't outside,’" Riley told Carr.
By the time she ran around the corner, Riley said, Keira was being loaded into an ambulance, but still breathing, with a gunshot wound to her neck.
She died on the way to the hospital with her mother following behind the ambulance.
"And I felt her last breath. I felt her take her last breath. I did. It was like a wind just hit me and it just went straight up," Riley said, motioning to the sky.
Two of the men were treated and released from the hospital. The third unidentified victim is in critical condition.
So far, no arrests have been made in the shooting.
Friends gather to remember Keaira
Dozens of tiny candles were lit for Keaira Wednesday night in hopes that her death will spark change in the DeKalb County community in which she lived.
"I know if I can't be strong for myself, I have to be strong for her," said sister Kenshon Riley. "I don't wish death on the people who did this, but what I do want is justice. That's what I do want for my little sister."
Family friends and community activists at the vigil called for an end to the violence.
"Put the guns down. Teach your sons. Some of y’all have kids, and this could have been your child.
This could have been my child," one family friend who did not identify herself told Channel 2’s Carl Willis.
"We see it every day. We get upset that the police are coming in killing us, but we kill ourselves. It has to stop," said James Shellaugh, with New Era Atlanta.
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