Vigil held for Akron girl killed by a stray bullet

AKRON, Ohio - Outside the Akron apartment on Keys Place where Carmella Holley was struck and killed by a stray bullet a memorial grows Thursday night.

On the eve of what would have been Carmella’s twelfth birthday friends and family gathered for a vigil to pray for the girl and her family and seek information that brings those responsible for her death to justice.

Carmella was watching television inside her sister’s Hillwood Apartment when a bullet fired outside from the parking lot pierced the wall of the unit striking her in the back.

“The streets talked it got back to me who did it,” Carmella’s mother Carmella Holley Sr. told Newsnet 5 Thursday night.

“If i have to go to jail and lay down because I'm about to jump somebody's daughter. Your age is nothing to me. I know where you live and I know which house that gun went into.,” she said. “You better hope the police get you before I do."

On hand for the vigil was Akron Police Chief James Nice who said his officers are working around the clock on this case. “We've got some people identified of interest right now but not to the point of executing arrest warrants, this is moving as fast as an investigation possibly can."

Nice says he grew up across the street from where this all happened and he is urging the people of the complex to partner with police. “Young people carrying guns is a problem and we can’t see that from police cars, police offices, we need a partnership with the communities.

“When young people are carrying guns we need to get them out of their hands because when they get angry there’s going to be a shooting and this is nothing new,” he said.