NASHVILLE, Tenn (WTVF) — A family is in mourning after 3-year-old Jamayla Marlowe was shot and killed Monday night.
Little Jamayla and her 2-year-old half-sister were both caught in the crossfire when police say people started shooting.
"We wake up in the morning, I’m ready to go to work she says, 'paw paw, give me a hug, give me kiss, give me blow, give me fist bump'," said Earl Jones.
Jones says this is how his great-granddaughter Jamayla would greet him every morning.
“Bink” as the family called her, was a happy child with a love for lipgloss and a mouth full of compliments.
"Three years, she has a legacy behind her, and she showed and gave God’s love to everybody," said Samaria Leach. "She would come up to you and be like, 'I like your nails, I love your hair, I love your mustache,' anything. She was God sent."
Jamayla’s young life was cut short. "Her life was just snuffed because of someone else’s actions and just carelessness," said her aunt Jeanna Berry.
It was Monday evening, April 12 when Jamayla and her younger half-sister, Antania were in the backseat of a car at the Cumberland View apartments. Their mother’s boyfriend DeAndre Dean was also shot.
"She got shot in the back and the bullet went to her heart and I just think am my baby going to make it," said Jones.
Jamayla was shot in the back and died from her injury. Antania was shot in the arm and is home now recovering.
The family says Dean was like a father to the girls and had nothing to do with the shooting and he’s a victim as well. They say this should have never happened.
"My baby at the hospital in the morgue. That is not right for a 3-year-old to be in the morgue at this age, she was an innocent baby," said Jones.
Jones says he’s hurt. "I’m mad as hell. I had this girl since she was born, living here on this property."
The family is asking for the violence in Nashville to stop. They are begging people to put down their guns, so another family doesn’t have to live with this pain.
"Bullets do not have eyes and when they land you don’t know where they go when you pull that trigger," Jones said.
24-year-old Anthony L. Sharp was arrested and charged with felony aggravated assault after he allegedly shot 23-year-old Thomas L. Winston Jr. in the shootout.
Police say Dean will be taken into custody after being released from the hospital on six unrelated outstanding warrants.
