Community Donations Flood In To Bury 14-Year-Old Girl Shot In Park

CHARLOTTE, NC -- Community donations have poured in to help pay to bury 14-year-old Taylor Sotera Smith, who was gunned down in a suburban park earlier this month.

Smith’s cousin, Jade Bethune, launched a GoFundMe campaign following her death seeking $2,000 in hopes of helping her family pay for the funeral.

“We can’t comprehend why anyone would kill a 14 year old child,” she said. “In her grandma’s words, ‘She was a flower that was not fully bloomed.’”

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As of Tuesday morning, the campaign had received $2,300 from 60 contributors and had stopped accepting donations.

Smith, a resident of east Charlotte, was found lying on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds in Mount Holly’s River Street Park the afternoon of April 3. Shortly afterwards, Darvon Fletcher, 18, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

The two “were familiar with each other” Mount Holly Police Chief Don Roper said following the event.

In an arrest affidavit filed April 10, Fletcher pointed a finger at a second suspect, Eric Deon Combs Jr., 17, who is currently on the run, according to The Charlotte Observer. According to the court document, Combs walked with Taylor into the park before Fletcher heard gunshots and saw her fatally shot as she ran back toward the car. Combs then returned to the car and drove away.

Combs, who is thought to have fled to the Dayton, Ohio area with his mother, LaQuita Garrett, is wanted for first-degree murder and a federal count of flight to avoid prosecution.

Images via Pixabay, GoFundMe