Cobb County

Family says 11-year-old accidentally killed 14-year-old

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Family and friends are remembering a Cobb County teenager, killed by an 11-year-old in an accidental shooting.

Destiny McNichols, 14, died after being shot by an 11-year-old boy at the Sierra Forest Apartments on Mableton Parkway Tuesday.

"She was like my daughter and you know she was a good kid, one of the best kids, one of the good ones," godmother Mya Badger told Channel 2’s Ross Cavitt.

Destiny McNichols, 14, died after being shot by an 11-year-old boy at the Sierra Forest Apartments on Mableton Parkway.

Badger and two best friends went to building 2000 Wednesday still trying to figure out how Destiny's young life ended in the breezeway.

"We are definitely looking for answers,” Badger said.

The shooting happened outside Ghervon Blue's apartment. He told Cavitt he heard one shot, the girl scream and saw a neighbor boy he believed to be 11 starting to cry.

"I saw the girl laying right there on the ground and she was bleeding," Blue told Cavitt. "The boy was screaming that he shot her by accident and he was just crying. He was just distraught, I guess he didn't understand what was going on, I don't know what he was doing with a gun in the first place."

Rescuers tried frantically to save McNichols, performing CPR at the complex, but the Lindley Middle School teen later died at the hospital.

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"Every time I come out here I just see the little girl laying right there," Blue said. "It’s getting out of hand with these young kids getting these guns and something needs to be done about it."

"This violence and all this drama and everything these girls have to go through on a daily basis it has to stop, it just has to stop, and maybe Destiny was, she's watching over us, she might be our angel watching over us," Badger said.

Wednesday night, friends and family gathered for a candlelight vigil in honor of McNichols.

Destiny McNichols, 14, died after being shot by an 11-year-old boy at the Sierra Forest Apartments on Mableton Parkway Tuesday.

Channel 2’s Justin Wilfon was with the teen’s friends as they had a hard time containing their emotions over losing the 14-year-old.

"Our hearts are aching tonight. We admit it hurts tonight," friend Nyasia Ray told Wilfon.

Her friends and family say the Lindley Middle School student was one of the good ones, who they now have to face life without.

"That pain doesn't go away but you learn how to cope with it. You learn that these people are in a better place. You learn," Ray told Wilfon. "Anybody who's out here. We loved her. Even if you didn't see her every day, you loved her."

Police said they continue to investigate. There is still no word on why the 11-year-old had the gun or where it came from.