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Three Suspects Arrested In Fatal Shooting Of 8-Year-Old Girl, Horse She Was Petting
Arbrie Leigh Anthony was killed when at least two individuals opened fire from a Jeep outside her Augusta home while she was visiting with some local horses. One of the horses was also shot and later died.
Three suspects are in custody in connection with the murder of an 8-year-old girl who was shot to death while petting a horse.
Arbrie Leigh Anthony was the victim of a drive-by shooting on Saturday outside her Augusta, Georgia home, according to a press conference led by Richmond County Sheriff Richard Roundtree. She was driven to the hospital in a private vehicle, where she was pronounced dead from a gunshot wound to the head.
She was the year’s first homicide in the county.
“All acts of violence involving gunfire are senseless,” Sheriff Roundtree said at Monday’s press conference. “But when it comes to a child, we take that one personally.”
Arbrie’s paternal aunt, Jamila McDaniel, spoke with Oxygen.com about the honor student who attended Jenkins-White Elementary School.
“She was like a bright light, a ray of sunshine,” said McDaniel. “Anybody who comes in contact with her, you’re gonna love her. You ain’t gonna forget her.”
At the time of the shooting, Anthony was in an area of the neighborhood frequented by locals who came to pet the horses. Two men on horseback were also on the scene when the shooting occurred, and one of the horses was struck by a bullet and died the following day.
Anthony’s aunt said she had been with the girl only minutes before the shooting.
“I had just literally seen my niece, it was five minutes, and I drove off,” McDaniel told Oxygen.com. “I get a phone call that [Arbrie] got shot. So I was like, ‘What Arbrie?’ ‘Cuz like I said, I had just literally left her.”
At least two suspects fired five to 10 shots from their vehicle, according to Augusta’s CBS and NBC affiliate. Authorities had appealed to the public in their search for a reddish-orange Jeep Compass Trail Hawk as part of their investigation.
Hours after the press conference, the Grovetown Department of Public Safety — which assisted the sheriff’s office and the U.S. Marshals Service — secured arrest warrants for three suspects in the case.
Authorities conducted a traffic stop in the parking lot of a Jiffy Lube in Grovetown “in reference to an ongoing murder investigation in Richmond County.” During it, Antoine Rodrigues Redfield, 21, Devonte Juanye McNeil, 25, and Henri Ramone Beach, 20, were placed under arrest.
“A search of the vehicle at the time of the stop revealed multiple firearms and several dozen financial transaction cards belonging to multiple individuals, none of which were passengers in the vehicle,” stated the Department of Public Safety. “A large amount of U.S. currency was also located in the vehicle as well as narcotics and drug paraphernalia.”
Redfield was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, while McNeil and Beach were charged with financial transaction card theft.
Authorities noted that the charges were only in relation to the traffic stop and that at least additional firearms- and narcotics-related charges were expected.
“They just don’t know what they took from us, Anthony’s aunt told Oxygen.com. “They took a precious soul. We got a hole in our heart. They took our hearts.”
McDaniel said her niece was a happy child who had aspirations of being a TikTok star and spent most of her time playing outside with her cousins. Arbrie Anthony was her father’s only child.
A GoFundMe page was created to help her father with funeral expenses.
