‘Perfect little girl’: 1-year-old dies, another child hurt in southeast Charlotte shooting

CHARLOTTE — Friends and family in southeast Charlotte are grieving the loss of a 1-year-old girl killed in a shooting this weekend.

Balloons and messages memorialize little Q’arysnn Maske.

Maske and a seven-year-old boy were shot at an apartment complex on Wallace Road off Monroe Road after 8 p.m. on Saturday, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

The young girl’s mother told Channel 9′s Anthony Kustura described her daughter as an old soul.

“She had so much love to go around for everybody,” Shaqua Maske said.

Shaqua said a family friend was supervising several kids at the apartment when, at some point, one of the kids found a gun that Shaqua said was not hers.

Police say the gun went off hitting Q’arysnn and her seven-year-old brother who was holding her.

Q’arysnn was taken to the hospital where she later died. The seven-year-old boy was taken to the hospital with non life-threatening injuries. He remains in the hospital.

Shaqua said she is devastated.

“I’m not stable, I’m not fine, I don’t know how I’m talking,” she told Channel 9. “Just imagine the trauma of you’ve seen a one-year-old dead.”

CMPD said it was conducting a death investigation around the shooting. So far, no criminal charges have been filed.

Shaqua called it a terrible accident with horrific consequences, but she said she isn’t angry.

“Anger isn’t going to bring my baby back,” she said.

Instead, she is trying to be strong for her three other kids while also planning a funeral.

“She was this perfect little girl, this innocent perfect little girl with so many nicknames, so much love,” Shaqua said. “What I need is for respect and peace so that we can lay this baby down peacefully.”

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