Friends and neighbors gathered Monday night to memorialize the 16-year-old who was fatally shot in the Cayce Homes on Sunday evening. The vigil was the latest in a year of deadly shootings in the East Nashville public housing complex.

Deberianah Begley was on her porch when the shooting started. When she ran for cover, she was shot and killed by a stray bullet. 

A close friend of the victim’s family, Angela Scales, says she is heartbroken over the fact that Begley, an innocent bystander, was killed.

“People know that the majority of the people that live here are single mothers with children,” Scales said. “I can’t understand — why would someone open fire? They don’t think about the tragedy that could cause, such as this.”

Begley is the second Stratford High School student to be killed in the Cayce Homes recently. Vastoria Lucas was fatally shot in March, just yards away from where Begley was killed.

East Precinct Commander David Imhof, from the Metro Nashville Police Department, has been working to stem the increased violence in Cayce. He’s deployed more officers and added foot and bike patrols.

“Words aren’t going to describe what folks are going through again over here,” Imhof said. “We’ve had police officers our here all day passing out Crime Stoppers cards, trying to get as much involvement as we can. We had seen such improvement over the last few months.”

Detectives are still looking for leads on the shooting. No arrests have been made.