14-year-old girl shot to death and left in snow, Indiana cops say. ‘Doesn’t feel real’
_fitted.png "Deandra Clay-Staples, 14, was shot and killed in Indianapolis.")
A community in Indiana is mourning the death of a 14-year-old girl after police say she was shot to death and left in the snow, news outlets report.
On Jan. 11, Indianapolis police were called to an apartment complex for a death investigation, according to the Indianapolis Star. When they arrived, they found 14-year-old Deandra Clay-Staples in the snow dead, police told the news outlet.
Deandra had been shot, WTHR reported.
“Deandra was small but mighty. She’s definitely a big bundle of joy in a small body. You didn’t always see her but you heard her,” her mentor and dance coach, Maranda Sanders, told WISH.
Deandra danced with the G3 Steppers dance group, WTHR reported. Now the team is coming together to remember her.
“She was very joyful,” Deandra’s teammate, 12-year-old Serenity Goodson, told the news outlet. “She was hype. She always had a smile on her face.”
Patrice Duckett-Brown, another teammate’s mother, told the Indianapolis Star that this is the first time her daughter has “lost anybody close to her like this to gun violence.”
“We’ve had a couple of conversations since then. I plan on taking her to a grief counselor. I think all of the girls are still in a state of shock because it’s so fresh and it doesn’t feel real,” Duckett-Brown said, according to the outlet.
Deandra’s mother took to social media, expressing her grief and love for her daughter.
“Lord why she wasn’t a bad kid always sweet and respectful to all adults very energetic full of life and always shined bright like the star she was loved her siblings and her family… What could she have possibly done to deserve something so cruel and senseless,” she wrote on Facebook.
Police have not named a suspect, and Deandra’s death is being investigated as a homicide, the Indianapolis Star reported.
Sanders told WISH she had a message for the person responsible for Deandra’s death.
“You will never be at peace. That uneasiness that you feel at night when you’re by yourself, that’s God convincing you that you need to turn yourself in,” she told the outlet.
