As the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests continued to escalate, more and more innocent lives were lost, not as a result of police brutality but from the hands of activists who continued to lobby for systemic change.

On Sunday, tearful parents of 8-year-old Secoriea Turner blasted off Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists after a group of rioters opened fire on the car that she and her mother were in. The couple appeared along with Democrat Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to sound off community alarm on the increasing violence and anarchy in the city.

The 8-year-old’s father, Secoriya Williamson stated, “They say black lives matter.” He continued, “You killed your own. You killed your own this time. … They killed my baby because she crossed the barrier and made a U-turn. You killed a child. She didn’t do nothing to nobody.” Turner’s mother also expressed her anger towards the situation, “My baby was shot.” She claimed that two armed people from the protesting crowd opened fire at their car, killing the eight-year-old.

Turner’s dad added that her daughter only wanted to come home to see her cousin, “She just wanted to get home,’ he repeated. According to reports by WSB-TV, officers responded to a 911 call at around 9:50 p.m. on Saturday. The authorities claimed that the 8-year old was killed on the very same street that 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks was shot by police officers in Wendy’s parking lot. The area had since been occupied by activists, demanding justice for Brooks’s death.

During the press conference, Bottoms also condemned the rioters. In a statement, the Atlanta Mayor claimed that people are doing “more harm” than police officers. She lambasted the people behind the shootings, calling them “cowards.” She also issued a warning that the perpetrators are still in their community.

The Mayor claimed that people have constantly demanded accountability from their police officers. To address the issues, she cited that they have “protested”, “demonstrated”, and “demanded action.”

However, the incident left Bottoms in disbelief, as she expressed her frustration that the protests would lead to the death of an innocent eight-year-old. “The reality is this–these aren’t police officers shooting people on the streets of Atlanta, these are members of the community shooting each other,” the Mayor lamented. She described the entire situation as the “worst possible outcome.”

Bottoms claimed that she had “enough”. The Democrat believed that the country had spent enough time discussing the movement, and now that they have the world’s attention, people should strive for real change instead of “shooting at each other.” She gave out a stern warning that if they do not want to lose their “movement,” they cannot “lose each other.”

Finally, Bottoms defended the police saying that the incident cannot be blamed on the authorities, and neither can protesters demand criminal justice reform as long as they continue to shoot innocent civilians.