DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Her daughter became a nurse so she could help save lives. Then it was the daughter’s life that needed saving after she was shot.
Now the mother of 29-year-old Sametria Edwards-McCord wants the accused teenage gunman to stand trial as an adult.
“I’m so angry. That’s my baby,” Latanya Walker told Channel 2′s Tom Jones.
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Edwards-McCord’s mother is not only angry and heartbroken, but she’s relieved. “There is definitely some relief,” she said.
Relieved that DeKalb County police have finally arrested the suspected gunman who killed her daughter back in May.
What hurts even more is that the 16-year-old suspect is a relative.
“A cousin,” Walker painstakingly revealed.
Edwards-McCord had recently graduated nursing school and was in her first week working at Grady Memorial Hospital. “Looking forward to saving lives,” her mother said.
Then it was her life that needed saving.
Police said someone started shooting outside a gathering on Chestnut Hill Circle after a funeral for a relative Edwards-McCord attended.
Edwards-McCord was hit as she was getting in her car.
She died at Grady, her place of employment. “We can’t even accept it. It’s just unacceptable,” her mother said.
Even though it is a teenage relative accused of ending Edwards-McCord’s life, Walker still wants the stiffest punishment possible. “So you want him tried as an adult?” Jones asked. “I do. I do,” Walker responded.
Walker knows some will say at 16 the teenager’s brain wasn’t fully developed and not capable of making mature decisions. “But it was functional enough to pick up a weapon and fire and murder my daughter,” she said.
And she said the teen shot into a crowd of people.
She doesn’t know what prompted the shooting. And she said her daughter was not the target of the shooting.
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“I demand answers. I definitely want answers. I want justice for Sametria,” she said.
The DeKalb District Attorney’s office said it could not release the suspect’s name because of his age.
A spokesperson said the office will carefully review the facts of the case before making a final charging decision.
The teen remains at the youth detention center.
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