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“No parent should ever have to bury their child, O'Neal said in
a statement, "and if there is anything I can do to ease even a
small part of that burden, then it is the right thing to do.”
O'Neal's offer was announced in a joint news release by the
sheriff of Douglas County, where the fight occurred, and the
sheriff of Henry County, where O'Neal owns a home and holds a
position as the sheriff's community relations chief. Both
counties are in the Atlanta suburbs.
The girl's death is being investigated by police in Villa Rica,
about 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Atlanta. Police say Jada
got into a fistfight with another girl near a neighborhood bus
stop where they had been dropped off after school on March 5.
She died at a hospital three days later.
Sgt. Spencer Crawford, a police spokesman, has said
investigators were reviewing cellphone video of the fight posted
to social media that shows Jada and another girl approach each
other and begin throwing punches after the school bus leaves.
The video shows the girls fall to the ground before an adult
intervenes. It ends as Jada picks up her backpack and begins to
walk away.
She never made it home. Sgt. Spencer Crawford, a police
spokesman, has said emergency responders were dispatched on a
report of “a young juvenile who was in cardiac arrest laying in
the street.”
Results of an autopsy to determine the cause of death have not
been released.
One of the girl's aunts, Lindsey McClendon Pettiford, said in a
social media post that Jada's funeral is scheduled for Saturday.
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