Relatives, friends and classmates gathered this weekend to mourn the death of an 8-year-old girl killed Friday in a drive-by shooting, while public leaders deliberated how best to support a grieving community.
Authorities say Ronziyah Atkins was standing near her front porch in the 500 block of Southeast First Street after 7 p.m. Friday when someone opened fire from a passing car.
Detectives do not believe Ronziyah, known as Ziyah, was the shooter’s intended target, but she was struck at least once and died from her injuries that evening at a local hospital, a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman said.
At a vigil outside her home the following evening, classmates and neighbors gathered with relatives to mourn her death.
Children clutched pink and white balloons and cried for their friend as Ziyah’s family played R&B ballads like Beyoncé’s “Heaven” and Jhené Aiko’s “Promises.” A poster of Ziyah in a pink-and-white outfit overlooked the ceremony from the front porch, lit by cameras and TV camera lights.
At Gove Elementary School, the nearby 638-student campus Ziyah attended, administrators arranged to have grief counselors on campus when students return Monday, along with an emotional support dog provided by the school district’s police department.
“We will work together as a Gove family to get through this very sad time together,” Principal Kim Thomasson wrote in a message to school parents Saturday.
As friends and family grieved, sheriff’s detectives were poring through evidence as they worked to identify a suspect in the case. The agency said it is offering a $25,000 reward for “information regarding the SENSELESS homicide of an eight year old girl.”
“Hopefully someone will realize that with a heinous crime like this, they need to come forward,” sheriff’s spokeswoman Teri Barbera said Sunday.
As the investigation pressed on, government leaders in the region met to discuss the best steps for addressing the tragedy.
Points of discussion in meetings Saturday and Sunday included how to support the family and hundreds of grieving classmates, as well as what steps to take to prevent similar tragedies in the future, said Palm Beach County School Board member Marcia Andrews, whose district includes Belle Glade
“Everyone’s coming together to come up with an action plan so we can all work together to make sure this never happens again,” Andrews said. “An 8-year-old girl has lost her life. We’ve got to make sure we reassess everything we’re doing,”
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