21-year-old shot to death one week before mother’s wedding

ATLANTA — What was supposed to be one of the happiest times in a metro Atlanta woman’s life is now filled with sadness.

A week before Danielle Keith’s wedding day, someone killed her 21-year-old daughter, A’nyah Davis.

A teenager is now charged with her murder.

Channel 2′s Tom Jones talked to Keith, who said Davis was really exited to walk her down the aisle on her wedding day.

“It was like a dream come true to her,” Davis said. “She couldn’t wait. And then to have that moment snatched away... That was hard.”

Davis told Keith she planned to come home early to make her mom a wedding cake.

“The cake was never made and everything is just sitting in the closet,” Keith said.

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Keith had to settle for a picture of her daughter at her wedding on Saturday.

“It was my best and worst day all in the same breath,” Keith said.

Police said Davis was involved in a personal dispute Oct. 22 in Statesboro, where she went to Georgia Southern University. Officers said a 16-year-old boy shot her at an apartment complex.

Keith said her daughter was there to ask a girl who damaged her phone to pay for the repairs.

When Davis knocked on the door, the teen shot her.

“The door opened. He fired a shot,” Keith said. “She didn’t stand a chance.”

U.S. Marshals arrested the teen in Hinesville.

Keith made the decision to go ahead with her wedding. She put Davis' picture on a chair, and another daughter walked her down the aisle.

“I had to put on a front because it had to be a joyous occasion,” Keith said.

She can’t understand why young people are so quick to resolved their differences with a gun.

“Everything doesn’t have to result in you grabbing a gun,” Keith said. “I just feel like as a culture, we need to do better."

She wants people to be just as upset about this type of violence as they are when they protest against police.

“We never focus on that fact,” Keith said. “There’s young people out there doing the same exact thing that we don’t get outraged over.”

Davis' funeral was in McDonough.

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Cox Media Group