‘She had so much life left ahead of her’: Community mourns slain girl
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - The identity of an eight old girl shot and killed in an apparent drive-by shooting in Augusta Saturday night is being revealed.
Her family told News 12 the girl’s name is Arbrie Leigh Anthony.
Not much is known about the case at this point but, today, less than 24 hours after her death, the family hosted a balloon release Sunday to remember a child taken too soon.
As friends and neighbors showed their support for the family, purple balloons filled the sky.
“She had so much life left ahead of her. She was a good child,” said Jamila McDaniel, Arbrie’s aunt.
“She was a happy child, she smiled all the time. Anytime you would come around her it was her spirit, they took that from us,” she said.
“You couldn’t do nothing but love her; that was the type of personality she had,” said Dominique Anthony, another aunt.
Anthony said she loved people as much as they loved her.
“She loved her family, her momma, her daddy her grandma her cousins, everybody that’s around about her,” said Anthony.
The neighborhood’s participation in the balloon release shows her family the impact Arbrie had on everyone around her.
“It just shows me that she was loved by so many people, and that means so much to me,” said Anthony.
Community members, like Jason Prouty, her dad’s boss, and a family friend are rallying around her dad and the rest of his family with projects like a GoFund Me.
“I just want him to feel loved and I can’t imagine, I can’t fathom what he’s going through,” said Prouty.
Prouty said it’s all in the name of showing support for a father who loved his daughter.
“His daughter was his world, he talked about her all the time,” said Pourtry. “All the wonderful things she’s done and how smart she is and how great she’d done in school and it’s just heartbreaking.”
As they remember a child, they are hopeful for justice.
The community as a whole is sending its condolences to that family on social media.
Copyright 2022 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.
