Friends and family remember young girl shot while riding bus

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (WSVN) -- Emotions ran high as friends and family honored the life of a young girl shot and killed while riding a school bus.

What they've seen is pain teenagers shouldn't have to know. "It's sad because I just knew her," said Javier Joe. "I didn't want to know a person that had died in my life."

Ironically, wide smiled 13-year-old Lourdes Guzman DeJesus has left a whole circle of people sad. "It says I want you back," said Ericka Baltonando. "So that's what made me think about her. She was always happy. She was never really sad."

She was shot and killed on a school bus on Southwest 296th Street and 137th Avenue on her way to school on Tuesday with her little sister in tow.

Her mother is left without the greatest thing she says God ever gave her. At the vigil, she thanked everyone who cared for her daughter before she collapsed in tears and in agony. "You guys are amazing," cried Ady DeJesus. "You guys are her voice, you guys are everything to her."

Lourdes' closest group of girls are looking past the pain of losing her the best way teenagers can "It sucks a lot," said Sonya Rodriguez. They are trying to find forgiveness for the 15-year-old boy who police said brought them to this place of hurt when he brought a loaded gun on the school bus which they said accidentally fired, killing Lourdes.

"I imagine it on the other side," said Celeste Fernandez. "If he were my friend, I would ask for forgiveness." Channeling courage far beyond their years, even with eyes filled with tears.

The memorial on the side of the road where the shooting occurred is made up of personal notes, pictures, stuffed animals, flowers and other momentous Lourdes' friends and family want to remember by.

In the mean time, the 15-year-old who police said shot and killed her perhaps accidentally, is being held in the Miami-Dade County detention center charged with manslaughter.

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