ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Beyond the entrance of Park at Highgate Apartments on North Powers Drive, Orange County deputies are still investigating who shot 19-year-old Raniyah Gandy to death early Wednesday morning.
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Officials have released very few details about what happened, other than saying shots were fired from a car. Dozens of shell casings were marked on the ground.
A neighbor told Channel 9 that Gandy and another woman were in the car that was shot at.
READ: ‘Sounded like an automatic weapon’: Woman, 19, shot to death in Orange County
Channel 9′s Ashley Edlund talked to Pastor James Morris of Carter Tabernacle Church, who said Gandy’s family has close ties to his church, and they are reeling.
“When I received a text from the grandmother and I called, immediately when she heard my voice, she broke,” Morris said. “My heart broke for her.”
Morris said Gandy was in her second year at Florida A&M University, trying to make everyone around her proud.
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“She’s a beautiful young woman who was concerned about making life better for her family, (for) those around her,” he said.
Morris said he doesn’t know who would want to hurt her.
“In the words of her grandmother today, ‘This is something we were not expecting. We never anticipated this would have happened in our family.’”
Deputies said they’re waiting to get information about the car the suspects were in. Anyone with information is asked to call Crimeline.
Morris said they’re hoping someone will step up and do the right thing.
“We need to get these people off the streets,” he said. “No one wants to make themselves a target, but there are ways your anonymity can be kept.”
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