Authorities in Augusta, Georgia, launched a manhunt for two suspects accused of fatally shooting an 8-year-old girl in the head as she petted horses outside her home on Saturday.
Arbrie Leigh Anthony, an honor student at Jenkins-White Elementary School, began the day visiting her aunt and playing outside. By Saturday night, she was pronounced dead at a local hospital after police said two suspects driving a red or orange Jeep Compass fired up to 10 shots outside her apartment building.
They rained bullets on a neighborhood where horses were kept as pets for children, police said. One of the horses was also killed in the attack.
“We are following every lead, but I cannot and will not accept the fact that no one knows who these suspects are,” Richmond County Sheriff Richard Roundtree told reporters Monday. “There are individuals in this community who know why they’re there, know what they’re there for, and know who they are, but they haven’t given this information out.”
“All acts of gun violence are senseless, but for a child we take it personally,” Roundtree said, calling the gunmen “cowards.” “.
Police are seeking the public’s help in identifying the suspects in the vehicle, which may have a black cap or a black stripe on the hood.
Meanwhile, Anthony’s family has been thrown into agony by a happy day that ended in bloodshed.
“It was just an ordinary Saturday, an ordinary day. She loves playing outside,” says Anthony’s aunt, Jamila McDaniel Chronicles of Augusta, recalls that she visited her niece and brought her a purple Powerade just hours before filming. “I just don’t understand why someone would do something like that.”
“My brother will never be the same,” she said of Anthony’s father. “What that person stole from him, from us, was unimaginable pain and hurt. He took something so precious from us for something inanimate.”
McDaniel describes his niece as sly and charismatic, a student who loves TikTok and loves to travel. Jenkins-White Elementary School officials said they will be providing grief counselors to staff and students in the wake of Anthony’s death, which they say leaves the entire community “deeply saddened.”
Jason Prouty, the boss of Anthony’s father, Art Anthony, established a GoFundMe To help the family pay for the funeral, the 8-year-old says “everything and the reason for my father’s life”.
The family is said to be planning a march in memory of the 8-year-old after her funeral.
“We’re going to [get] justice for Arbrie, we will oppose Arbrie. Everyone will know about Arbrie Leigh Anthony,” McDaniel told take note.
