FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A Fort Lauderdale teenager was remembered by family and friends Saturday, a little more than a week after she was shot and killed. The murder suspect is now behind bars.
The family of 16-year-old Tanaejah Atterbury struggled to find the words to express their pain.
“I can’t even talk about it because it’s traumatizing,” Sharday Heller, the victim’s mother, said.
They came together for a candlelight vigil Saturday evening.
Heller said, “I didn’t know she was shot until I saw blood and I saw the hole on her shirt, and that’s when I realized she was shot.”
Atterbury was shot and killed on Feb. 17 during a chaotic scene on Northwest Eighth Avenue near 16th Street.
Witnesses say Atterbury was near a fight involving two teenage girls.
“Our soul, it took our soul from us,” Angeletta Thomas-Keel, Atterbury’s grandmother, said. She was just beginning to be a teenager. And she was just looking.”
Atterbury was shot in the back after gunfire rang out, the bullet exiting her right shoulder.
Isaiah Frazier, 17, was arrested on Tuesday by Fort Lauderdale police and faces a charge of first-degree murder.
“It doesn’t change anything, we can’t bring them back, but I’m glad y’all got him,” Thomas-Keel said.
Heller added, “I was relieved, but I was crying, emotional. Ask God, he really answered my prayers for my daughters.”
Atterbury’s family described her as gentle and fun-loving.
“She’s at peace, but I want complete justice for her,” Heller said.
The family said they do not know the man who was arrested and believe the young girl was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time.