15-year-old girl stabbed to death by 4 teenage girls in Louisiana Walmart, video livestreamed on social media
LAKE CHARLES, LOUISIANA: A teenage girl was stabbed to death in a Louisiana Walmart over the weekend in a violent incident involving four other minor girls.
The incident took place at around 7.30 pm on Saturday, January 23, the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office said in a statement on Facebook. The statement further said that a fight took place between five teenage girls, aged between 12 to 15, at a Walmart on Highway 14 in Lake Charles.
The four minor girls allegedly stole knives from the store, which were used to stab the 15-year-old. She was taken to a local hospital where she died from her injuries. The murderous fight probably started at a movie theater before culminating in the stabbing at the Walmart, Chief Deputy Stitch Guillory said to news station KPLC.
Among the four girls, two are 13-year-olds, one is 12 and the other is 14. All four girls were arrested and booked into the Juvenile Detention Center, the sheriff's office said. One of the girls was charged with second-degree murder and the other three were charged with principal to second-degree murder.
Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Tony Mancuso said in a press conference on Sunday, January 24, that this is the third case of a homicide involving juveniles in the past six months, calling the uptick in crime among minors a "parenting issue". "This is not something we can police our way out of," Mancuso said. "I just don't feel like this is a police matter. This is a parenting issue."
He also said: "They stole knives from the actual store where they were at. It is really heartbreaking when we have to come in and pick up the pieces because so many families are damaged after this. Our whole case unfolded before us through live Facebook and Instagram... we have videos of everything that took place and it's very disturbing."
"The whole murder was played out on (social media) so, again, there appeared to be no remorse. It was very cold to see 12, 13, 14 and 15-year-olds acting this way and we as a society can't tolerate it. We cannot let this plague and take over our community," he added.
Footage from the incident was posted on Facebook and Instagram live, it showed one girl armed with what appeared to be a knife as the victim approached and lunged at her. Police later released a surveillance image of that girl, who is one of the 13-year-olds, as she fled the store in a bid to track her down after the stabbing. The videos revealed that the group of girls escaped the store in a getaway car as one of them screamed: "Just stabbed somebody at Walmart." One of them can be heard saying, "We just stabbed that b***h in her heart. We don't give a f**k."
Authorities have not yet confirmed who was driving the car. Initially, the police department named the 13-year-old wanted over the stabbing in a Facebook post when they were trying to track her down. The other three girls were not named. The victim's identity has not been publicly released.