GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A mother mourning her 19-year-old daughter’s death called for people to take gun safety seriously after what she describes as a deadly accident at a sleepover.
Maria Carmen Ramirez says her daughter Nina Ramirez was killed early Thursday morning at a home on Lauren Kay Court when a gun went off that no one knew was loaded.
“She was a very friendly and kind, and she always take care of other people. She was a sweet girl,” Ramirez said.
Lawrenceville Police say 19-year-old Sebastian Prestridge shot Nina in the head during the get-together with friends just before 1:30 in the morning. The mother says the group was passing around a gun that belonged to a friend of Prestridge.
“They were playing with the gun,” Ramirez said.
She says no one checked whether the weapon was loaded before it fired.
Police arrested Prestridge for involuntary manslaughter. Investigators say he remained at the scene and is cooperating.
Despite the devastating loss, Maria Ramirez says she does not feel anger toward Prestridge. She says she watched her daughter fall in love with him and saw how happy Nina was in the relationship.
“He used to come in and he show that he was so nice. He showed he loved her,” she said.
The grieving mother acknowledges the instinct to search for someone to blame.
“When you get mad and these things happen, you want to find something guilty [or] someone guilty, but I think it was just an accident,” Ramirez said.
Now, she wants her daughter’s death to serve as a warning to others about gun safety.
“People have to take care of the guns and save it in a safe place. It’s not okay that this kind of accidents happen,” she said.
Nina’s family started a GoFundMe page to help with funeral expenses as they navigate this tragedy.
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