SHELBY, N.C. — Two weeks after her 16-year-old daughter was murdered in a drive-by shooting, a Shelby mom is still looking for answers.
Skyteria Poston died in an apparent drive-by shooting on Nov. 9 in Shelby, police said.
According to investigators, someone in a car drove by the house on Roberts Street just before 4 p.m. and opened fire. When police got to the scene they found Poston laying in the yard. She was taken to the hospital but did not survive.
A heavy police presence had the street blocked and Chopper 9 Skyzoom could see law enforcement between West Dixon Boulevard and South Lafayette Street.
Police identified a suspect in the shooting but no arrests have been made. Poston’s mother spoke with Channel 9′s Ken Lemon about finding closure.
“It took a part of my heart from me,” Mona Chatman said.
She was sitting on her front porch a few feet away from the spots where her daughter died.
“She got shot in the back 3 times. Do y’all know how that make me feel?” Chatman asked. “She was running to me.”
Police said a group of people in a car drove by the home when someone fired shots. They charged 20-year-old Santana Almont Eaves Jr. with murder and discharging a weapon into occupied property. Officers said he is on the run.
Chatman said her daughter didn’t know him.
“She didn’t bother nobody. He just came and gunned her down like she was an animal,” Chatman said.
Police believe they are close to identifying the others in the car.
“I want somebody to come forward to me,” Chatman said. “I hurt every day, wishing somebody would come forward and let them know who did this to my child.”
Karnez Brooks keeps a button with a picture of his sister close to his heart.
“I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. I can’t do nothing,” Brooks said. “I just want justice.”
Chatman said she is glad to see Shelby Police working with other law enforcement agencies to help the team of investigators assigned to this case. The chief said they have been ramming up their efforts as tips come in.
“Here we are in the week of Thanksgiving, and I want nothing more than to give this family closure,” he said.
Neighbor Sampson Taylor has lived in west Shelby for 14 years and told Channel 9 he is used to the sound of gunfire.
“And I heard, pow, pow, pow,” he said. “It was so loud I thought I was hit. So, I got down into a fetal position. It was so loud, sounded like they were standing on my porch.”
Taylor’s home is across the street from where the shooting happened.
“I (saw) the bullet holes, and I asked, ‘Was anybody hit?’” Taylor said. “The mama came out and said, ‘My baby.’ That’s all I remember, her saying, ‘My baby.’”
Taylor said he saw the girl on the ground.
“The worst thing I’ve seen,” he said. “Trying to make sense of it all then I run back in the house and call 911.”
Reporter Ken Lemon spoke with the girl’s grieving family just after the shooting, who said it’s not the first time the family has had to cope with tragedy. Poston was the third of her siblings to be shot over a 9-year period.
Brandy Brooks ducked for cover in the house on Roberts Street after shots rang out from a car driving by with a group of people inside. She came outside and found her younger sister, who had been shot in the back, on the front steps.
“They deserve the death penalty. She wasn’t nothing but 16,” Brooks said. “I seen her take her last breath. She couldn’t talk.”
The shooting is compounded by two other shootings that have impacted their family. Brandy Brooks said two years ago, a bullet went into her home and hit her in the back.
“I’m lucky to be here, but my sister is not here,” she said.
And in 2012, she said their brother was shot and killed.
“I never got justice for my brother,” said Zanaya Davis, another of Poston’s sisters. “I’m going to get justice for Skyteria. If it takes the last breath out of me.”
Reverend Ricky McCluney is one of a few pastors working to stop shootings like this. He works one-on-one with young men urging them to break the code of silence and talk to police about shootings.
“I believe if we get together, and fight stand up as a people we can fight against the evil,” McCluney said.
He knows it is an uphill battle, but he looks at this family forced to cling to pictures instead of people and praying for justice.
“Literally breaks my heart,” McCluney said.
Police have not released a motive in the shooting but family and neighbors believe Poston was not the intended target. They told Channel 9 that the girl was a junior at Shelby High School and was thinking about getting her own home and car.
Relatives said they think Poston was trying to get inside the house when the gunfire erupted. They said they rushed outside after the shooting stopped, but it was already too late.
Police said they believe there was a group of people connected to the shooting, though they have only named one suspect.
Anyone who knows where Eaves is should call the Shelby Police Department immediately at 704-484-6845 or leave an anonymous tip by calling Crime Stoppers at 704-481-TIPS.
Police said the teenage girl was the only person struck by gunfire. Taylor said he hopes police make an arrest soon.
“We (were) hoping something could be done,” he said. “You know, we were praying, hoping something could be done.”
““I don’t want them to see daylight. I don’t care if they be in prison for the rest of their life,” Brooks said. “I don’t want them to see daylight.”
Check back with wsoctv.com for updates on this story.
(WATCH BELOW: Man, woman shot while gunfire narrowly misses baby boy in car seat, deputies say)
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