Goldsboro playground becomes memorial for slain girl
A playground where a 3-year-old Goldsboro girl was killed Sunday by a stray bullet has turned into a memorial to her by grieving neighborhood parents and children.
Posted — UpdatedPeople left balloons and stuffed animals at the playground at The Grand at Day Pointe apartment complex, where Princess Shelby King was shot when an argument between two men escalated into gunfire.
Other children and adults on the playground at the time, but no one else was injured, police said.
"It's devastating. A child can't even come to the park," area resident Juanita Faison said Monday. "She was only guilty of making everybody smile. That's all she was ever guilty of."
Princess lived in a nearby apartment with her mother, brother and two sisters.
"She was always smiling. She made other people smile. She loved dancing," said Tisha McLamb, 15, one of her sisters.
Police were searching for Derrick Raymont Best in connection with the shooting. They have issued a warrant for his arrest, charging him with murder.
Best, 29, of 1508 Mimosa St. in Goldsboro, has been in and out of prison over the past 12 years for convictions on charges that include possession of a firearm by a felon, assault on female, resisting an officer, simple assault and drug possession, according to state Department of Correction records.
He was charged with attempted murder in a September 2008 shooting in Goldsboro.
"I think it's really messed up. I don't think they should have been (firing guns), especially not while kids are out and everything," McLamb said.
Anyone with information on Best's whereabouts is asked to call Goldsboro police at 919-580-4212.
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