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A 10-year-old girl allegedly shot and killed a woman who was involved in a physical altercation with her mother. The fatal dispute occurred on Memorial Day at a cookout in Orlando, Florida, local news station WKMG reported.
Orlando police spoke with three witnesses, including the victim’s unidentified boyfriend. According to his testimony, he and his girlfriend, Lashun Rodgers, 41, were having a cookout for Memorial Day when 31-year-old Lakrisha Issac and her 10-year-old daughter approached them. Police said Issac was intoxicated when she engaged in a fight with Rodgers. The victim’s boyfriend said Issac handed her bag to her daughter and punched the victim, who punched back.
He failed to break up the fight after Rodgers escaped her boyfriend’s hold and continued to fight Issac. That’s when the young girl pulled the gun out of the bag and shot at Rodgers twice, striking her. The man claimed he heard Issac’s daughter shout, “She shouldn’t have hit my momma.”
The boyfriend tried to help Rodgers but was met with a gun pointed at his chest by Issac, who took the gun from her daughter. The man ran back to his apartment as did Issac and her daughter.
Another witness who watched from her apartment said that Rodgers and she had spoken about the issue between the victim and Issac, in which Rodgers told the witness to stay out of it. The witness’s testimony aligns with the boyfriend’s — that the two exchanged punches before the child fired the gun and Issac took the gun from her daughter and pointed it at the boyfriend.
Another witness didn’t see the fight but saw Issac take the gun from the 10-year-old as they returned to their apartment. During questioning, the girl told Orlando police that the victim had struck her mother in the head with an object and threatened that her family would jump Issac. Despite the girl being cooperative with officials, Issac exercised her right by refusing to speak until she had a lawyer.
The mother faces charges of aggravated assault with a gun, manslaughter by culpable negligence, negligent storage of a firearm, and neglect of a child. She went in front of a judge Wednesday, who set her bond at over $51,000.
So far, the victim’s family is grieving and expressed their sadness and anger.
“She did not deserve that,” Rodgers’ aunt Arlene Mathis said. “it was a simple argument. What mother does that? That’s the part that angers me. It’s not the actions of a child, it’s the actions of the mother.”
Ashia Johnson is Rodgers’ only child and stated that if the situation was reversed, her mother would’ve prevented the outcome.
As for the child and whether or not she’ll be charged, the decision is up to the State Attorney’s Office.