TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Five men were indicted for the shooting death of a 4-year-old girl in Tampa, authorities said.
Suni Bell’s smiling face has been absent from her loved ones’ lives for more than a month.
“We miss everything about her, just, Suni. Her name speaks for itself,” her grandmother Dria Bell said.
Tampa police said Bell was shot on Aug. 22 while riding in her mother’s car. The next day, investigators released video showing a dark-colored car following their car the night Suni was killed.
On Thursday, the agency and the Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office said five men were taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Florida Regional Fugitive Task Force.
They released the following statement about the charges the men face:
Indicted are Zvante Sampson, 30 years old; Quandarious Hammond, 28 years old; Jaylin Bedward, 22 years old; James Denson, 24 years old; and Andrew Thompson,
22 years old.
The indictment accuses all five individuals of the felonies of first-degree murder for killing Bell, attempted first-degree murder on a different victim in the same case, conspiracy to commit murder, and shooting into a vehicle.
Additionally, the indictment accuses Hammond and Sampson of attempted murder on a third victim in the case; as well as Hammond, Thompson, and Denson of discharging a firearm from a vehicle in public.
An indictment is a formal accusation against a person suspected of a crime. It is approved (typically phrased as “returned” or “handed down”) following consideration of the evidence by an impartial group of Hillsborough County residents serving on the grand jury.
“They have to pay for what they did,” Suni’s mother Mary Harrison told 8 On Your Side. “That detective told me he was not gonna sleep and he did what I wanted him to do. He did a good job, everyone did a good job.”
The family says they’re grateful for all the time and effort put in to the case.
“I knew this day was gonna come but I didn’t know how soon. I’m a praying grandmother and I never lost faith,” Dria Bell said.
