Girl, 13, Shot Down as On-the-Job Spat Ends With Violence

A “petty” on-the-job spat between two hospital workers escalated into a near-brawl on a Compton street late Sunday that ended when one of the nearly 20 women and girls involved allegedly pulled a gun and fatally shot a 13-year-old, police and witnesses said Monday.

By late Monday afternoon two of the women, both 19, had been arrested in the death of Shaquilla Birmingham. A third suspect was making arrangements with her attorney to surrender, police said. At least one other woman was being sought.

Brenda Webb and Dolly Smith, both of Compton, were booked on suspicion of murder and were being held at the Sybil Brand Institute for Women.

Shaquilla, of Los Angeles, was among two carloads of women and girls who earlier Sunday had gone to pick up Natasha Ashley, 23, from her job as a clerk at the Harbor UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, after Ashley argued briefly with a co-worker. Shaquilla apparently was brought along by an older woman, Ashley said.

The co-worker had left the hospital saying she was “going to get my homegirls,” Ashley said.

Ashley said she and her friends later were standing outside her home in Compton when the co-worker drove past, sped away, then returned with at least five other women in two cars. The two groups shouted at each other and some waved sticks, according to neighbors, before one of the women pulled out a handgun and opened fire, emptying the weapon. One shot struck Shaquilla in the upper body.

Some of Ashley’s neighbors said that before the shooting, several women in Ashley’s group tried to break the windows in one of the cars that drove up. One man said he saw Shaquilla standing at the curb with a stick in her hand before she was shot.

Ashley denied that any of the women in her group had sticks or other objects that could be used as weapons.

Compton Police Detective Sgt. Barry Lobel said the information gathered by investigators indicated that Shaquilla may have been watching the altercation when she was shot.

Authorities said that the shooting stemmed from the argument and that someone got out of a car and fired several shots, one of which struck the young girl.

But Lobel said authorities are still trying to sort out exactly what happened.

The co-worker was not available for comment.

The incident occured shortly before 8 p.m. Sunday at the intersection of East Palmer Street and Chestnut Avenue, a few hundred feet from Ashley’s home on a street of neatly clipped lawns that neighbors described as normally quiet.

On Monday, neighbors peered at outsiders from behind locked security doors and shook their heads as they recalled the burst of violence.

“There were several children out there playing on the sidewalk when it happened and they hit the ground,” said a 56-year-old grandmother who did not want her name made public. “My daughter and my grandbaby were just coming around the corner. My daughter could be dead. My grandbaby could be dead.”

Ashley, who sat in her dining room Monday and talked about the argument that led to the shooting, described it as “petty.”

“I said something to (the co-worker) about this guy we knew and she asked me if I was having sex with him,” recalled Ashley, who said she took offense at the remark and said so.

The two then “had words,” Ashley said, before the co-worker announced that she was going to get her friends.

“I told her not to go and get trouble and start something she couldn’t get out of, but she left anyway,” said Ashley, who contends she decided to leave work early to avoid a confrontation.

She said that before she could, however, the co-worker returned with two other women and challenged her to a fight. Ashley said she declined and that the confrontation ended without incident.

Several hours later, she said, the co-worker and her friends drove to Ashley’s home.

Before the gunfire erupted, Ashley said, the six women repeatedly called her by name, urging her to step out into the street.

“I feel so bad that that baby got killed over something she didn’t know anything about,” said Ashley.