Left to right: Zion Gibbs and Sierra Chambers (Fayetteville Police Department).
A North Carolina woman was charged with murder in the death of a 7-year-old boy hit by a stray bullet fired into his home from a passing car while he was playing video games and eating cheese fries.
Charges for Sierra Chambers, 19, will face murder charges in the death of Zion Gibbs, upgraded from her initial charges of being an accessory after the fact. The charges were upgraded after an investigation, local ABC affiliate WTVD reported.
Zion was killed on June 7 in the 800 block of Danish Drive, the Fayetteville Police Department said.
Bullets ripped through the walls of his home, fatally wounding him. He died at a hospital days later.
A neighbor reported seeing a vehicle slowly driving by, then hearing gunshots and seeing the aftermath.
“I was waiting a few minutes, heard the cops pull up, taped everything off,” the neighbor told local NBC affiliate WRAL. “The mother was outside. She was hysterical. I heard her say her baby got shot in the face. She was saying the people drove by and shot up in the house.”
Another neighbor told WRAL that she heard more than 15 shots fired.
Zion’s aunt Treka Beasley wrote on GoFundMe that bullets flew through the house just after midnight as her nephew, an elementary school student, was on the living room couch playing his video game, enjoying the start of his summer break.
A round struck him under his left eye, penetrating through to the back of his brain. He died after days of being on life support.
Police announced Chambers’ arrest as an accessory after the fact on Oct. 31.
But it’s unclear whether detectives have identified the shooter. A police spokesperson did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment from Law&Crime about other suspects.
“I’m very hopeful that this is going to put us closer to getting who took my baby from me,” Zion’s mother, Myra Gibbs, told WRAL after Chambers’ arrest.
The killing of her son crushed her.
“It’s beyond words how shattered my heart is, and there are a lot of whys. I wouldn’t wish this on nobody,” she told WTVD in September. “This is a 7-year-old little boy, an innocent victim just in the comfort of his own home playing a video game and eating cheese fries.”
“He was one of those kids: Mommy, are you OK? At night, every single night, he’d say, ‘I love you guys’ two or three times in one night. He was just a loving kid,” she added.
“As difficult as it was for my sister to let go and release him back to God, she knew that although he was no longer here in the flesh, he will always be with her in spirit as her guardian angel watching over her just as he always did,” the aunt wrote. “We now hold this special day, June 10th, 2024, dear to our heart as Zion transitioned to the spirit realm with God.”
“If you ever met Zion or knew him, you knew that Zion truly embodied the meaning of his name,” she added. “Just like the biblical reference to Zion as a place of peace, strength, and spiritual significance, Zion exuded these qualities in everything he did whether it was through his nightly checks on his mom filled with hugs and kisses or his random moments of singing an inspirational song when someone needed it.”
