AUGUSTA, G.A. (WJBF) – An emotional day as family members bid their final farewell to Arbrie Anthony. The 8-year-old girl, laid to rest today after she was shot to death 11 days ago.

Screams of agony, tears, and prayers were all part of the final farewell to Arbrie Anthony.

Dozens of mourners attended, including Arbrie’s mother, who was granted a temporary pass from prison.
District Attorney Jared Williams also, mourning Arbrie’s death.

Friends and family members say Arbrie’s death was senseless.

“Unbelievable, it’s pass sad, sad is not the word anymore, I can’t find the words no more,” said Dorothy Robertson, a family friend.

“She was an innocent child, she was taken away at an early age,” said Kimberely Tanksly, a cousin.

Arbrie’s casket carried in on a white carriage, led by white horses.

“It just hurt, I hate to see my nephew go through the things that he’s going through because that was his only child,” said Veronica Anthony, Great Aunt.

But the 8-year-old was also a child to the entire community.

“Everybody, she was very known and everybody loved her. She was playful, she was the leader. Tik Tok – she loved her tik toks, her friends, her schoolmates,” said Anthony.

Some of Arbrie’s friends and loved ones used her funeral to plea for a stop to violence in the community.

“I just wish our people would stop it. We say black lives matter, but if we don’t matter to each other then who else you think we gone matter to,” said Robertson.

Robertson says the gang violence in her community has gotten out of hand.

“Everybody wants to be a gang banger. You gotta be a gang banger in order to take someone’s life so you show them you’re big time, but you’re a coward, you’re totally a coward,” said Robertson.

The funeral director says Arbrie’s funeral was the hardest in her 30-year career.

“We can just not make sense of this. There’s nothing that can make this make sense to anyone,” said Helena Guess, funeral director at Hillcrest Memorial Cemetery.