ORLANDO, FLORIDA: 15-year-old Nico Brown has been charged with murder in a drive-by shooting in Orlando, Florida that killed a 6-year-old girl sitting in her living room and injured her mother.
According to Orlando police, a 19-year-old man was also slain in the incident.
Nico Brown arrested on charges of first-degree homicide
A shackled Brown is seen grinning in a video Orlando police released on its Facebook page as he is led by detectives out of the police station and into a police vehicle.
Police detained Brown and charged him with first-degree homicide on Saturday, September 2.
Local ABC affiliate WFTV was informed by neighbors that street shootings are a persistent issue.
Another neighbor claimed that several bullets from various shootings have struck her home.
Who were the victims in the drive-by shooting?
According to a news release, officers rushed to 1141 Poppy Avenue at about 8.20 pm on August 29 in response to reports of two people being shot from a passing car.
Shots were fired repeatedly from a moving car which struck the girl and her mother inside their home.
6-year-old girl Ajahliyah Hashim, who was shot in her living room and rushed to the hospital, succumbed to her injuries on Thursday, September 31.
Hashim's mother sustained non-life-threatening wounds. Police claimed that they were, however, not the intended victims.
19-year-old Isaiyah Wright, a third gunshot victim, died at Health Central in Ocoee.
Hashim attended Eagle's Nest Elementary, said Superintendent of Orange County Public Schools Maria Vazquez.
Vazquez posted on X, "My heart goes out to the Eagle’s Nest Elementary community, which has just lost a 6-year-old student to gun violence last night. Ajahliyah Hashim and her mother were victims of a shooting on Tuesday."
"I cannot imagine the pain Ajahliyah’s family is going through. We can not accept that these tragedies have become all too common in our community," she added.
Similar drive-by shooting incidents in Florida
In August 2023, a drive-by shooting in Northwest Miami-Dade left at least one person hurt. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue took one of the victims to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital after they had been shot.
In another similar incident, a drive-by shooting occurred in a community in central Florida in January 2023, injuring ten people.
According to Lakeland Police Chief Sam Taylor, two of the victims were seriously injured, while the other eight victims' wounds weren't thought to be life-threatening.
