‘Everybody loved their Khia’: 19-year-old college student shot, killed while sleeping

WRENS, Ga. (WRDW/Gray News) - An investigation is underway after a 19-year-old was shot and killed in Georgia over the weekend.

According to Georgia Special Agent Pat Morgan, Jefferson County dispatchers received a call about a shooting shortly after 1 a.m. last Saturday at a home on Washington Street in Wrens.

Morgan said when Wrens police and Jefferson County deputies arrived, they found the woman unconscious inside the home. She was taken to Augusta University Medical Center but later died.

Jefferson County Deputy Coroner Fay McGahee identified the female victim as 19-year-old Khia Shields.

“Everybody loved their Khia. She was just this warm person, and they just took her away from me,” said Shareka Pitts, Shields’ mother.

The unexpected tragedy has left the family in shock.

“Never in a million years did I think I would we would be woken up with her saying she was shot, never,” Pitts said. “I’ve been here for 41 years. Never had any issues.”

According to the 19-year-old’s mother, everyone who knew her daughter loved her.

“Just a great-spirited, beautiful young lady that was just taken from me just too soon,” Pitts said.

She added, “Khia wanted to be a teacher. All the kids that she had around liked her. She was just that person that they would latch to and connect with.”

Shields was attending Georgia Southern University and was working at an area Walmart, according to reports.

Pitts said she hopes this doesn’t happen to anyone else ever again.

“We have to come together as one and as a community and stop this gun violence because it’s getting out of hand,” she said.

Now, Pitts is holding her family even closer but says nothing can replace her daughter and the bond they had.

“She will be missed. She was my only child,” Pitts said.

Authorities said the shooting continues to be under investigation. No arrests have currently been made in the case.

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