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The Dallas Police Department said Thursday afternoon that they've identified a suspect in the shooting death of 9-year-old Brandoniya Bennett. She was shot and killed Wednesday evening as she sat in her apartment on Munger Avenue in Old East Dallas.
According to Dallas Police Maj. Danny Williams, the first link in the chain of events that led to the girl's death was a dispute between two rappers over a series of "diss" tracks. The rappers — police identified one of them, Tyrese Simmons, as a suspect — got into an argument at the Roseland Townhomes. Simmons turned himself in to Dallas County Jail Thursday night.
After bystanders broke up the fight, Williams said, Simmons, 19, returned with a gun, looking for his rival. When Simmons' intended target didn't come to his apartment door, Simmons ran around to the back of the complex, Williams said, and shot into what turned out to be the wrong apartment, hitting Bennett. Police are still looking for additional potential suspects.
And here’s another look at the victim - Brandoniya.
— Andrea Lucia (@CBS11Andrea) August 15, 2019
Dallas Police Major Williams says she was scheduled to start school today and just had her nails done yesterday. @CBSDFW pic.twitter.com/DeUwsKq5H0
Police and paramedics rushed Bennett to Baylor University Medical Center, but she died shortly after reaching the hospital.
"(Kids) don't think about safety because as adults, as parents, as police officers, we're supposed to make them safe," Williams said. "There's no way in the world that you can tell me this is the way that we're supposed to live and that we're supposed to accept the things that happened to this 9-year-old."
Community activists gathered at the apartment complex Thursday to call for action.
"When one family hurts, we all hurt," Maurice Ash said. "We have to learn how to live together, to learn how to march together, how to pray together ... We have to stop the gun violence."
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