A 17-year-old high school senior has been identified as the victim of a mass shooting at a shopping centre in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Thursday. Martha Odom died from a gunshot wound to the chest, according to the local coroner’s office.
The shooting occurred when two groups exchanged gunfire in the food court of the Mall of Louisiana, leaving five other people wounded. Police said a 17-year-old suspect, Markel Lee, surrendered on Friday and faces charges including first-degree murder and five counts of attempted first-degree murder. Authorities are searching for a second suspect.
Martha was one of several students from Ascension Episcopal School who were at the mall for an unofficial ‘skip day’ ahead of their graduation. The school released a statement describing her as ‘a joyful presence whose kindness and infectious enthusiasm brought light to all who knew her’.
Louisiana’s attorney general, Liz Murrill, who said she was a friend of the Odom family, called Martha’s death a ‘devastating loss of innocent life’. The shooting comes less than a week after another mass shooting in Louisiana killed eight children in Shreveport.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been at least 122 mass shootings in the US so far this year. Gun violence remains the leading cause of death for teenagers and younger children in the country.
