‘Senseless’ shooting kills recent graduate

She was smart and ambitious, and Ka’Mani’ Kirkland had a plan for her life. The recent South Cobb High School honors graduate was set to begin nursing school the fall.

“She was vibrant, outgoing, the biggest heart you could imagine,” Maisa Bates, Kirkland’s mother, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “She just wanted to get into a field to help somebody in any capacity.”

Kirkland, 18, died Wednesday after what investigators believe was an accidental shooting.

She had picked up a friend, who shot her from the backseat as she drove, Kirkland’s family said. Kirkland died from her injuries after being taken to Wellstar Cobb Hospital, the same hospital where she was born, her mother said. in

Christopher Morris, 17, a former classmate of Kirkland’s, was later arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter and possession of a gun by a person under 18, Cobb jail records show. Morris was released Friday afternoon after posting $25,000 bond.

Bates believes Morris may have been showing off the gun when he fired it, striking her daughter.

“I think he got his hands on something he had no knowledge of,” she said. “It ended up taking my baby’s life, out of ignorance. It’s so senseless.”

Kirkland had planned to study nursing at Chamberlain University in Sandy Springs.

Thursday night, hundreds of friends and former classmates gathered for a candlelight vigil.

“I have never, ever in my life seen something so powerful,” Bates said.

Investigators believe the shooting, which remains under investigation, was accidental. Anyone with information on the incident is asked to contact the Cobb police department’s Crimes Against Persons Unit at 770-499-3945.

Ka’Mani’ Kirkland