FOREST CITY, N.C. — A North Carolina man has been arrested in the shooting death of a 7-year-old girl, police said Wednesday.
The Forest City Police Department said in a news release that when officers responded on Tuesday to a call of a child being shot, they found two people removing Aaliyah Norris from a car.
Officers discovered she suffered a single gunshot wound to the head and said she was initially hospitalized in critical condition. However, the girl did not survive, WLOS reported.
Police arrested Shaquille Marshon Francis, 26, of Forest City on Wednesday and charged him with multiple offenses, including assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury with intent to kill.
Authorities said those charges were upgraded to murder, Fox reported.
Shaquille Marshon Francis, 26, has been charged with the murder of Aaliyah Norris, 7. (Forest City Police Department)
Francis was released from jail on unrelated charges three hours before the alleged shooting of Norris, Forest City Police Chief Chris LeRoy said, according to WLOS.
“I don’t know whether this was necessarily a random act. I just don’t know what the motivation was,” LeRoy said, adding that Francis and Norris knew each other, WGXA reported.
Francis is being held in the Rutherford County Jail in lieu of a $10 million secured bond. It’s not known if he has an attorney.
Additional details about the shooting were not released.
