MIAMI – Shanay Jones told reporters Monday that a shooting that left her 4-year-old daughter dead was "an accident."
Police said Nyla Jones was sitting in a car when she was fatally shot by her uncle over the weekend.
"It was an accident, so everybody needs to stop faulting him, because it was an accident," Shanay Jones said.
Family members and friends gathered on Monday night for a candlelight vigil for Nyla.
"That was my baby. She didn't deserve to go. Not like this. Not like this," Shanay Jones said.
According to an arrest report, Ronald Jones Jr., 24, had gotten into an argument with Shanay Jones and another person Saturday outside the victim's home in Miami's Liberty Square neighborhood before pulling out a gun and threatening to shoot them.
Police said Ronald Jones pointed the gun at the victims' car and fired several shots, hitting Nyla in the mouth.
Two adults and two children were inside the car at the time, the report stated.
Police said Nyla was immediately driven in the same car she was in when she got shot to North Shore Medical Center, where she died.
Another child was hurt by shattered glass, but is expected to be OK.
According to the arrest report, Miami Fire Rescue transported two victims with non-life-threatening injuries to Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Family members called the shooting an accident and said Jones never intended to hurt Nyla. Nyla's aunt, who is also Jones' sister, said Nyla's mother has even forgiven Jones.
"She wants to let him know that she still loves him, that she forgives him, that she knows it was an accident," Sharonda Mitchell said.
Despite the claims in the arrest report, Mitchell said her brother did not aim at the car Nyla was in after he got into an argument with one of their sisters.
"He did not aim at that car. Witnesses came to me and told me he was trying to take it off of him and put it in the car, but he snatched it off of him and it fired off," Mitchell said. "It was a mistake. My brother is not a bad guy. He's never been in jail -- he's never gotten in trouble period with the police."
For now, relatives said they are doing their best to support Nyla's mother who lost her only child.
"It's so hard," Mitchell said. "We have to bury her. She's no longer here."
"I'm gonna always be with my daughter because she not going nowhere -- she right here," Shanay Jones said while placing her hand on her heart.
Miami police spokesman Officer Michael Vega said Jones fled in his car, but abandoned the vehicle with both of its front airbags deployed about a mile away from the site of the shooting. He said Jones walked into a Miami police station a few hours later and turned himself in.
Jones faces charges of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder.