Fundraiser helping mother of pregnant teen killed in Columbus. How to donate
A GoFundMe account has been set up to help pay for the funeral arrangements of a teen and her stillborn baby after a shooting July 27 on Juniper Avenue in Columbus.
Keiauna McFadden, 17, was shot and airlifted to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta and pronounced dead a few days later at 4:08 p.m. Friday, the Ledger-Enquirer reported.
McFadden’s baby, identified as Za’Mauri Kasai McFadden, was stillborn last Tuesday, according to the GoFundMe.
“In less than a week, I lost my daughter and grandson, both ripped from this world far too soon by a senseless act of gun violence. My heart is shattered. My world is broken,” Tinisha Hood, identified as McFadden’s mother, wrote in the GoFundMe.
Hood said she received “a call that no mother should ever get” July 27 from her two other daughters telling her Keiauna had been hurt.
When she arrived at a local hospital, Hood was taken to a family room, where she saw her daughter with a gunshot wound to the back of her head, she wrote.
Hood said she was told there was no chance of survival for Keiauna, but Keiauna was airlifted to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta to try to save Za’Mauri’s life.
“Funds will go toward funeral and burial expenses for Keiauna and Za’Mauri, as well as any unforeseen costs as we try to navigate this overwhelming grief,” Hood wrote.
As of Tuesday, the GoFundMe had raised $5,885 of the $6,500 goal.
“We are truly grateful for every donation, prayer, and share,” the GoFundMe’s organizer, Nitasya Godfearing Roland, wrote Monday. “Your support has been a lifeline during the most painful time of our lives.”
Roland said Monday would’ve been Keiauna’s first day of her senior year of high school.
“She was so excited to be a senior,” Roland wrote. “Ready to take on the world, full of dreams and determination. Instead, we’re preparing to lay her and baby Za’Mauri to rest because of a senseless act of violence.”