Young gymnast among 3 killed in shootings near Orlando
CTV
T'yonna Major, 9, was killed Wednesday when a gunman barged into her home outside Orlando and shot the third-grader and her mother, who survived the attack.
At age 9, T'yonna Major excelled at her school work and in gymnastics, shown flexing her arms after competitions with newly won medals around her neck in photos her proud dad posted on social media.
"She was a light to everyone that knew her," the girl's father, Tokiyo Major, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe, where he has asked for donations to help pay for his daughter's funeral. "She was everything to us."
T'yonna was killed Wednesday when a gunman barged into her home outside Orlando and shot the third-grader and her mother, who survived the attack. The Orange County sheriff said the same assailant killed two other people in the Pine Hills area -- a TV journalist shot in a vehicle outside and a 38-year-old woman slain hours earlier in the same neighborhood.
Sheriff John Mina said the victims appear to have been killed at random.
Grieving families and friends of the victims are still trying to come to terms with the bloody rampage. A least two vigils in their memory were planned Friday evening.
Julie Schroeder, who has has worked with T'yonna's father for nearly a decade, described the girl's family as loving and close. She described T'yonna as precocious, with grades at the top of her class and reading two grade levels above her age group, as well as affectionate and polite.
"She loved deeply when you're around her," Schroeder told WESH-TV. "She always hugged you and she always referred to you as Mr. and Mrs. because respect was very big in their family."
