17-year old Tulsa girl shot and killed; mistaken for gang member

Kayla Ferrante, age 17

17-year old Kayla Ferrante had just graduated high school and was driving.  She and her boyfriend were driving to her home, and were only yards away from the house when gunfire hit their car, hitting her in the back.  She died soon after in the hospital.

The shooter, Edwin Jermaine Daniels, had mistaken the car for that of a rival gang member.

Daniels and another man, Michael Darnell Hilliard, are also convicted of an armed home invasion robbery.

From an article:

Kayla Ferrante, 17, graduated from her Tulsa, Okla., high school Friday, a year early in order to jump-start a career working with special-needs students. Her family said this was her passion.

After a family celebration Saturday, she went to a friend's house and later that night headed for home with her boyfriend Neikko Perez driving the car.

When the couple were just a half block from Ferrante's house, shots rang out that Perez thought were "really loud fireworks."

The bullet that hit Kayla pierced the license plate on the back of the car, tore through the trunk and hit her in the back before passing through her. Police later determined the bullets were fired from a high-powered rifle.

"I see a few guys a couple of houses down running inside and I started yelling for help because my girlfriend said, 'Neikko, call 911. I can't breathe,'" Perez told "Good Morning America." "I ran to her side of the door, opened it and I looked at her and I saw that she was bleeding."

About five minutes later, police and medical personnel arrived.

"They told me to get back and they didn't want me near," Perez said. "They started questioning me right after." 

Ferrante was rushed to the hospital where she died during surgery, police said.

By the time Perez got to the hospital, he said, "It was too late. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do, to hear that my girlfriend had passed."

.