SHELBY, NC (FOX 46 CHARLOTTE) - A suspected killer is on the run in Shelby. Police say the gunman killed a 16-year-old girl in her own front yard.
The mom and sister of the victim tell Fox 46 they were both inside the house when they heard gunshots, and they ran outside to find 16-year-old, Skyteria Poston, gunned down outside her home.
“What I’m dealing with, the pain, it’s like they took the heart out of my chest. That was my baby,” said Mona Chatman, the victim’s mother.
Poston was a student at Shelby High School who liked playing basketball and working.
“She was a good person, why, why did he have to do that?” said Chatman.
Police say 20-year-old Santana Eaves, Jr. drove by Poston’s house late Tuesday afternoon.
Poston’s mom says her daughter was sitting in her mother’s car with a friend.
Investigators say Eaves, Jr. opened fire on the house, and Poston went scrambling, trying to get inside away from the gunfire, but she was hit.
“She panicked, trying to run, trying to get to me because she had been shot,” said Chatman.
Poston’s sister heard the gunfire from inside the house.
“It just came out of nowhere, bullets was hitting the side of the house, that’s how loud the gunshots was,” said Brandy Brooks, Poston’s sister.
She rushed to help her sister, but she couldn’t.
“She took her last breath, and she died with her eyes open, and she just looked up,” said Brooks.
The family is devastated and says the suspected killer got the wrong person, but still showed no mercy.
“I’m thinking he meant to kill her because you had a chance to see who she was before you went on and finished what you was doing,” said Chatman.
Police are not telling Fox 46 if they have any other suspects or if the murder was random.
If you know where Eaves, Jr. is, please call 9-1-1 to help police get him off the streets.