A 12-year-old girl was struck and killed when a man walked up to a home in Victorville Wednesday night and opened fire, and the girl's mother said some unknown "senseless bull" is what led to the shooting.
Makiya Walls is seen in a photo provided by her family.
Deputies responded to a report of multiple shots fired in the 17000 block of Monaco Drive about 8:23 p.m., according to a news release from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
Witnesses told investigators they saw a man walking up to the home armed with a shotgun and then opening fire into the residence, sheriff's spokeswoman Jodi Miller said.
Video from the scene showed a front window of the home had been shattered.
Arriving deputies found 12-year-old Makiya Walls suffering from gunshot wounds and rushed her to a local hospital. Despite life-saving measures, Walls died at the hospital just before 10 p.m.
Her first day of school would have been Thursday, family members said. She loved cheerleading and playing sports and was an honor roll student who was close with her friends and a faithful Christian, the relatives said.
"Who would kill a little girl?" said the victim's cousin, Kim White.
The family of Makiya Walls speaks about her death on Aug. 10, 2017. (Credit: KTLA)
Outside the home, her family spoke to reporters early Thursday afternoon. The girl's mother, Maesha McCullers, broke down crying. She said she believed the shooting was "random."
"She's not here because of some senseless bull that had absolutely nothing to do with her. Nothing. She was innocent," McCullers said.
She said she didn't know who shot her daughter or why. She was coming back from bringing two younger sons to football practice when she learned from her best friend that her daughter had been shot, McCullers said.
Cameras and deputies were on scene when she got there, and investigators would not allow her into the home to see her daughter, she said. She saw paramedics performing CPR.
A relative of Makiya Walls holds up photo of her outside the family's Victorville home on Aug. 10, 2017. (Credit: KTLA)
"They couldn't save her," McCullers sobbed, holding her daughter's glasses and a stuffed animal, a "prayer bunny." "She didn't deserve this."
She opened her comments to reporters by saying her daughter was "awesome."
"Makiya is about the most innocent child – with the biggest heart – that any of you guys would have ever met," McCullers said. "She was smart, intelligent, witty, respectful, caring. She loved her family; she loved the Lord."
A vigil was set for 7:30 p.m. Thursday at a Little League park in Adelanto, a cousin said.
The shooter, described by the Sheriff's Department only as a black man, may have fled in a white, possibly four-door sedan that witnesses saw speeding from the area.
An investigation into the shooting was ongoing, Miller said.