4-Year-Old Girl Was Calling Out for Mommy When She Was Killed by Barrage of Bullets By Christine Pelisek

Five men were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Wednesday, Oct. 29 in connection with the fatal shooting of a 4-year-old girl in Florida.

Zvante Sampson, Quandarious Hammond, Jaylin Bedward, Andrew Thompson and James Denson were found guilty in September of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and shooting at or within a vehicle in the death of Suni Bell.

“This is what happens when you make stupid choices without thinking through things. Acting and reacting without figuring out what’s gonna be on the other side,” Judge Robin Fuson said during sentencing, WTSP reported. “Well, the other side for you five is the rest of your lives in prison with no chance of parole.”

Suni was with her mother and uncle in the family’s silver Infiniti when the shooting occurred along Hillsborough Avenue in Tampa on the evening of Sept. 17, 2021. Prosecutors said surveillance footage from a nearby gas station showed the five men watching the Infiniti before getting in separate vehicles and pursuing it. Suni, who was in the backseat, was struck by one of the dozens of bullets that were fired at the vehicle.

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“They were on their way to a family gathering and couldn’t find the address, so they pulled over to call family,” Erin Maloney, Communications Director with the Office of the State Attorney, 13th Judicial Circuit tells PEOPLE. “The theory was the men mistook Suni’s family for someone who drove a similar car. You can see the men conspiring with each other on surveillance video before arming themselves and hunting down the vehicle to commit the shooting.”

“Suni’s mother testified on the stand that she just kept saying, ‘Mommy’ as gunshots rang out,” Maloney added.

Her mother and uncle were uninjured. Suni died at a local hospital.

Prosecutors argued that even though not all five men fired a weapon, they were all guilty of murder under Florida’s principal theory of prosecution.

“Our prosecutors proved that each of the defendants played an active role in planning and carrying out this deadly ambush,” the Office of the State Attorney, 13th Judicial District said in a press release after the men were convicted. “As a result, all five men will be held equally accountable for Suni’s death.”

“This hurts,” Suni’s grandmother Drial Harrison said during sentencing, the Tampa Bay Times reported. “This hurts deep. It’s not something you can put a Band-Aid on and heal from.”

“Suni’s family said she had just started Pre-K and was so excited about getting her first backpack and starting school,” says Maloney. “Weeks later, she was gone.”