JERSEY CITY, New Jersey (WABC) — The mother and father of a 15-year-old lady who was shot and killed in Jersey Metropolis are talking out, at some point after her suspected killer was arrested and charged with homicide.
One peek at Cianna Lee’s room and you’ll see she was a typical 15-year-old lady, with stuffed animals on her mattress and her college outfit laid out.
That is the place her father would kiss her goodnight, however the final time he noticed her, she was dying in his arms.
“I used to be attempting to name her title, ‘Cianna, Cianna, Cianna.’ No response. Each time I shut my eyes at night time the one factor I can see is her face,” Lee’s father mentioned.
It was a face that beamed with pleasure, however what unfolded almost every week in the past may solely be described as a horror.
Lee was within the automobile along with her stepmom, driving house final Saturday on Saturday, January 18, close to Martin Luther King Drive and Union Road, when gunfire erupted.
“I reached out to her and realized my fingers have been crammed with blood,” her stepmom mentioned. “And that is once I realized that she was shot. After which I seemed on the mirror, on the rear mirror the place you possibly can see from the again and I noticed any individual was standing in the course of the road and having a gun pointed at our automobile.”
Lee’s stepmom would then notice she additionally was hit by a bullet in her decrease again. She and her husband rushed Lee straight to the hospital, however the 15-year-old couldn’t be saved.
“Cianna was a really loving little one, very loving little one. If a room was darkish she was the sunshine there,” her father mentioned.
Lee had solely been on this nation since March. Her father moved her right here from Jamaica for a greater life. She was simply getting acclimated to life as a pupil at Lincoln Excessive Faculty in Jersey Metropolis, after which her younger life was taken.
“Simply wished to know extra about America, the varsity system right here,” mentioned center college instructor Ms. Dunkin.
The varsity group has rallied across the household. Lee’s household, classmates and academics held a memorial for her Lee at the highschool the place they launched balloons in her honor on Friday.
The suspected shooter, a 16-year-old boy, is now charged as a juvenile with first-degree homicide and a slew of different counts.
However Lee’s mother and father nonetheless want closure.
“I do not see why she would have been the goal. I do not see why we are the goal as a result of we’re simply you recognize, we’re only a working household,” Lee’s stepmom mentioned. “My husband goes to work, I’m going to work, we come house.”
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