3 North Carolina teen boys charged with murdering 13-year-old girl days before Christmas

According to a report by WRAL News, officers with the Goldsboro Police Department responded on December 21 at around 4:40 pm to a scene where they found 13-year-old Jaleeyah Tune suffering from a gunshot wound. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Tune was a seventh-grade student at Wayne Middle High Academy.

“She was lovely. She was in middle school. She was a good kid. She didn’t deserve this,” Tune’s mother, Whitney, told the outlet. J'Sheeyah Tune, Jaleeyah’s sister, told ABC 11 that the two of them had taken a walk to get something to eat and on the way home, a group of boys she didn’t know jumped out of the bushes and opened fire. "She looked so scared. I was scared myself. I hate to see her like that. There was blood all on my hands. I didn't want to wipe it off. I still felt her presence. I felt her still with me," Tune’s sister said, adding that "I held her in her last moments."

Police confirmed that three juvenile suspects have been identified in the shooting and were taken into custody on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy. The suspects include one 15-year-old and two 16-year-olds. All three were arrested and taken to a juvenile detention center in Greenville, where they are being held pending court appearances. Authorities have not released their identities.

Investigators have not provided details about what led up to the shooting. The investigation remains ongoing and is being handled by the Goldsboro Police Department’s criminal investigations division and crime scene unit.

“I’m heartbroken,” the victim’s mother added to the outlet. “My daughter’s gone. Christmas [is] around the corner. She didn’t deserve this. She’s a little girl. She’s not coming home. It doesn’t matter where she lived, where she’d be; it shouldn’t happen. And [there are] other little kids out here that are in danger as well, with the violence."