911 Call:
“I just shot my niece,” the woman says calmly at the beginning of the 33-second call released to The Associated Press on Tuesday.
“I didn’t mean to do it,” the woman said. “We was arguing, I tried to get my gun to prove a point, they got the rifle with me and it went off.”
Asked about the location of her niece, the woman says bluntly, “In the car. I think she’s dead.”
The woman does not give her name but calls herself the victim’s aunt. Family members say Evelyn Burgess, the woman arrested in the shooting, was referred to as the victim’s aunt, though she was her older second cousin.
Evelyn Burgess was angry at Danielle over her outfit and accused her of flaunting her looks around other men at the party, including Burgess’ husband, Ralinda Pickens said.
A fight broke out with Evelyn Burgess and Danielle struggling with a baseball bat, then ended as Ralinda Pickens broke things up, got her sister outside and prepared to drive her home.
The sisters were in the car when Burgess came running up with a gun, reached inside the car, pulled Danielle by the hair and shot her as she tried to seek shelter under her older sister, Ralinda Pickens said.
Burgess then walked back inside her house, sat down on a couch, told people what had happened and waited for the police, Ralinda Pickens said.