Community mourns eight-year-old honor-roll student fatally shot while petting horses

An eight-year-old honor-roll student from Georgia was fatally shot in the head while she was petting horses outside her home on Saturday. According to The Daily Beast, the deceased, identified as Arbrie Leigh Anthony, was a student at Jenkins-White Elementary School.

Police said two suspects were involved in the shooting, and they drove by in a red or orange Jeep Compass before firing several rounds outside the deceased minor’s home. Following the shooting, Arbrie was transported to a hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Police also said the suspects opened fire at a location neighbors kept horses for children to pet. A horse also died from the shooting. The gunmen are yet to be apprehended, and authorities are asking the public to provide leads that would help in identifying and arresting them.

“We are following up on every lead that comes in, but I cannot and will not accept the fact that no one knows who these suspects are,” Richmond County Sheriff Richard Roundtree said on Monday.

“There are individuals in this community that knew why they were there, knew what they were there for and knew who they were after, but yet they’ve failed to come forward with this information.”

“All acts of violence involving gunfire are senseless but when it comes to a child, we take that one personally,” Roundtree added. The law enforcement officer also labeled the shooters as “cowards.”

The shooting has also left Arbrie’s family devastated. “It was just a normal Saturday, a normal day. She loved to play outside,” Anthony’s aunt, Jamila McDaniel, told The Augusta Chronicle. “I’m just not understanding why someone would do something like that.”

“My brother will never be the same,” McDaniel said in reference to Arbrie’s father. “What that person stole from him, from us, it’s so unimaginable the pain and hurt. He took something so precious from us for something so senseless.”

Meanwhile, officials at Arbrie’s school said they’ll provide grief counselors for staff and students in the wake of her death, adding that the community is “deeply saddened.” A GoFundMe has also been set up to help raise funds to cover Arbrie’s funeral expenses.

“We are going to [get] justice for Arbrie, we are going to protest for Arbrie. Everyone will know about Arbrie Leigh Anthony,” McDaniel told The Augusta Chronicle.