Four days after a 17-year-old girl was shot in the back outside a birthday celebration in San Diego, her family on Wednesday called for justice and peace.
The shooting was one of at least four across the county over the weekend. Two victims — a 16-year-old boy and an 18-year-old man in El Cajon — were killed. Six others, including the teenage girl, were injured.
On Wednesday, the family of the girl — including her uncle Shane Harris, president of People’s Association of Justice Advocates — held a news conference. The family said the shooting left the teen, a cheerleader at Lincoln High School, paralyzed from the waist down.
“My baby girl didn’t deserve this, and we don’t deserve this,” her mother, Tamesha Wallace, said. “I want justice.”
The shooting occurred about 12:50 a.m. Saturday on El Cajon Boulevard at Winona Avenue in the Talmadge neighborhood. Police said two groups got into a fight. The shooter then fired several rounds.
Gang unit detectives were investigating.
Harris said his niece was at a friend’s Sweet 16 party at a hall when the fight broke out. He said the incident “had nothing to do with her,” that she was “caught in the cross fire.” She was going to walk home when she was shot, he added.
The family thanked the community for their support, including Lincoln High School. The principal visited the girl at the hospital, where she remained Wednesday, Harris said.
The girl’s father, Brandon Wallace, thanked an officer he said applied pressure on his daughter’s wound. Wallace credited the officer with saving the girl’s life.
The family is offering a $3,000 reward to help solve the case and asked the public for help.
“We would want nothing more than the suspects responsible for this heinous crime to either come forward or be brought forward,” Harris said.
“My niece didn’t deserve to be shot,” he said, “but she wasn’t the only one.”
He pointed to other shootings over the weekend and called for the “senseless” violence to stop.
“Put your guns down and find a better way to resolve conflict,” he added.
One of the other shootings occurred at a house party on Mahogany Drive near East Washington Avenue in El Cajon on Saturday just before midnight. A 16-year-old boy and an 18-year-old man were killed in the shooting. Their names have not yet been released.
El Cajon police said the shooter confronted the victims, then shot them. One of the victim was found in the front yard, the other in the street. They were taken to a hospital, where they died, police said.
Investigators believe the shooting was gang-related.
Also Saturday, a dispute between two groups at the Otay Ranch Town Center in Chula Vista spilled into NOVO Brazil restaurant about 7:15 p.m.
A 16-year-old boy involved in the dispute ran into the restaurant and was shot in his legs. Also injured were three customers — a 60-year-old woman and a 58-year-old man, each shot in the legs, too. A 21-year-old employee was grazed by a bullet and suffered a wound to her leg.
At a house party in the Emerald Hills neighborhood of San Diego, a victim — whose age was unavailable — was shot in his lower left thigh about 4 a.m. Sunday, police said.
