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The family of an 8-year-old girl who was shot and killed in Atlanta in 2020, announced a scholarship in her honor on Friday. She was killed July 4, 2020, while riding in a SUV with her mother.
ATLANTA – The family of an 8-year-old girl who was shot and killed in Atlanta in 2020, announced a new scholarship in the girl's honor on Friday.
Secoriea Turner was killed July 4, 2020, while riding in an SUV with her mother and her mother’s friend near the Wendy’s restaurant where Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old Black man, had been killed by a white police officer just weeks earlier.
The new Secoriea's Social Justice Scholarship will provide a deserving college student $5,000 for the upcoming school year.
"After four years, we still have not received justice for Secoriea. We know we have to keep fighting and by helping a young lady go to college for social justice is a positive way to keep our baby’s spirit alive. Secoriea’s dream was to go to Spelman," said Charmaine Turner, the girl's mother.
Secoriea Turner
The family said they wanted to turn their pain and loss into hope for other families.
The local nonprofit Black Women's Lab will serve as the fiscal agent and members of the Black Man Lab and Let Us Make Man are working together to raise the scholarship's inaugural $10,000 goal.
"It is important that Black Women's Lab to help this family champion this cause in the memory of this beautiful soul. We want to not only continue to create safe spaces for young women of color but to also help address historical and systemic economic inequalities by being a part of an effort to provide financial support to college students," said Vanessa Cox-Logan, the founder of Black Womens Lab.
The family of an 8-year-old girl who was shot and killed in Atlanta in 2020, announced a scholarship in her honor on Friday. She was killed July 4, 2020, while riding in a SUV with her mother.
Donations to the fund can be made here.
Julian Conley, one of two men charged with the 2020 shooting death of 8-year-old Secoreia Turner outside a Wendy’s restaurant on July 4 during last summer’s protests, was denied bond on Thursday. Prosecutors say Conley is a known criminal and has a lengthy history of gang activity.
According to police, Turner was riding in a Jeep with her mother and an adult friend when they turned off the Downtown Connector onto University Avenue slightly before 10 p.m. Protesters had recently erected illegal barricades, encircling the nearby Wendy's, authorities reported.
When the driver attempted to enter a liquor store parking lot on the 1200 block of Pryor Road, police say he was confronted by a group of armed individuals who had blocked the entrance. Authorities said at least two men fired multiple times at the vehicle, hitting Turner.
After the shooting, Turner's family drove straight to Atlanta Medical Center, where they met police officers. The young girl died after being treated for her injuries.
Authorities were notified of the resurrected blockages less than an hour before the shooting. The Atlanta Police Department said they had planned on checking out the area but were swamped with other pressing 911 calls.
Julian Jamal Conley and Jerrion Amari McKinney (Fulton County Sheriff’s Office)
In 2021, a grand jury indicted 20-year-old Julian Conley and 23-year-old Jerrion McKinney. Conley is charged with malice murder and felony murder in Secoriea’s killing, and both men face aggravated assault, and gun and gang-related charges.
During all court proceedings, prosecutors have said both Conley and McKinney are gang members who were involved in the violent demonstration.
Conley and McKinney pled not guilty to the charges at a September preliminary hearing.
They remain in jail without bond.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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