#8-year-old girl fatally shot near Wendy’s where Rayshard Brooks was shot

An 8-year-old Atlanta girl was fatally shot on the Fourth of July near the Wendy’s where Rayshard Brooks was gunned down by a cop – leading the city’s mayor to declare “enough is enough” and demand action for the young victim, according to reports.

Secoriea Turner was struck by gunfire Saturday as she was traveling in a car near the fast-food outlet’s parking lot, where former officer Garrett Rolfe shot Brooks in the back last month, leading to protests and other shootings at the site, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

The girl was riding in a car with her mom and an adult friend when they exited a highway onto University Avenue about 10 p.m., police spokesman Sgt. John Chafee said, according to the paper.

The driver tried to turn into a parking lot on Pryor Road but was confronted by a “group of armed individuals who had blocked the entrance,” he said.

“At some point, someone in that group opened fire on the vehicle, striking it multiple times and striking the child who was inside. The driver then drove to Atlanta Medical Center for help,” Chafee added.

During an impassioned press conference Sunday, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms addressed the killers.

“You shot and killed a baby. And it wasn’t one shooter. There were at least two shooters. An 8-year-old baby,” she said. “And you want people to take us seriously. And you don’t want us to lose this movement, then we can’t lose each other in this.”

The mayor began her address by citing the protests against police brutality and angry calls for action.

“Well now we are demanding action for Secoriea Turner and for all of the other people who were shot in Atlanta last night and over the past few weeks because the reality is this,” she said.

“These aren’t police officers shooting people on the streets of Atlanta. These are members of the community shooting each other,” Bottoms continued. “And in this case it is the worst possible outcome.”

There were two other people who were actually shot and killed last night and several others.

“Enough is enough. Enough is enough,” she said.

“We have talked about this movement that’s happening across America in this moment in time where we have the ears and interests of people across this country and across this globe who are saying they want to see change,” Bottoms added.

“But the difference in this moment in time and the Civil Rights movement, the Civil Rights movement — it was a defined common enemy. So we’re fighting the enemy within when we are shooting each other up on our streets and the city.”

She praised “peaceful demonstrators across this city and across this country” for “honoring the lives of so many people who have been killed in America because of injustice.”

But she added that “this random wild wild West shoot-’em-up because you can, has gotta stop. It has to stop.”

Secoriea’s mom Charmaine also spoke briefly, saying her daughter died in her arms, WSB-TV reported.

“She was only 8 years old,” she said. “She would have been on TikTok dancing on her phone, just got done eating. We understand the frustration of Rayshard Brooks. We didn’t have anything to do with that. We’re innocent. My baby didn’t mean no harm.”

The grief-stricken mother was then overcome with emotion and led away by relatives as the girl’s father said a few words.

“They say black lives matter,” he said, according to WSB-TV. “You killed your own this time. You killed a child. She didn’t do nothing to nobody.”

Gov. Brian Kemp said in a tweet that “our hearts absolutely break for this precious life senselessly taken. Marty, the girls, and I are praying for the Lord’s comfort over Secoriea’s family and loved ones in the face of this tragedy.”

Interim Police Chief Rodney Bryant said police are offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to Secoriea’s killers.

One of the suspects was described as a man wearing all black and dressed like a bounty hunter. The other was a man wearing a white T-shirt, WSB-TV reported.

“We cannot tolerate losing a child from the city of Atlanta,” Bryant said. “We have to do a better job as a community and as a police department and as the citizens that live in this city,”