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INDIANAPOLIS — Metro police believe a stray bullet that hit and killed a 16-year-old girl over the weekend was fired by someone in a large gathering near 38th and Arlington.

According to information from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, the girl died after she was hit by a stray bullet while riding in a vehicle with her family just before 1 a.m. Sunday in the 6000 block of East 38th Street near the intersection with North Arlington Avenue.

The Marion County Coroner’s Office identified the victim as Nya Mae Cope.

Nya Mae’s godsisters, Laryssa Vest and Brittini Hill, said her tragic death has left their family in so much pain.

“She just turned 16 in February. She didn’t get a full life at all,” Hill said. “You took not only someone’s daughter, you took a little sister from us. You took a friend from me. You took a granddaughter.”

What makes the situation harder for them is that Nya and her mom, Nikki, were just in the wrong place at the wrong time trying to get some food and then heading home to Marion from Indianapolis.

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