Police have released the identity of a child who was shot and killed in North Carolina on Sunday.

Quazariya G. Williams, 7, was pronounced dead at Scotland Memorial Hospital in Laurinburg, North Carolina, Maxton police said, according to local news station WBTW.

The man alleged to have shot the child is 31-year-old Dedric Page, who police said fired shots into a car with five other people inside around 2 p.m. Sunday in Maxton. The condition of the other five people in the car is currently unknown.

Maxton is a town located about 40 miles southwest of Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Page was arrested not long after the shooting. His charges include first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle, discharging a firearm in city limits and possession of a firearm by a felon.

On Tuesday afternoon, Page was denied bond for two of his charges. His next court appearance is scheduled for Nov. 26.

USA TODAY could not immediately contact Page’s lawyer for comment.

Victim remembered as cheerleader and ‘a sweet girl’

Maxton police Lieutenant Patrick Hunt told WBTW that Quazariya was remembered as a cheerleader and a “sweet girl who has a lot going on in her life.”

Police said the shooting happened following a dispute between Page and the girl’s mother.

On Sunday, Townsend Elementary School, where Quazariya was attending elementary school, posted a memorial for the 7-year-old.

“Q. Williams – Always on our minds and forever in our hearts – #Sleepwellourangel,” the Facebook post said.

This story has been updated to add new information.

Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.

MAXTON, N.C. (WBTV) – A father accused of killing his daughter had intended to kill the girl’s mother, according to reports.

Sister-station WMBF said the fatal shooting happened Sunday afternoon on East Graham Street – just off Business 74 – in Maxton, which is a small town in Robeson and Scotland counties.

WMBF said that the father, 31-year-old Dedric Dewayne Page, shot into a vehicle with people inside and hit his 7-year-old daughter. The station reported that Maxton Police said Page had been targeting the girl’s mother.

The girl was taken to the hospital after shooting and later died there. Police said her name was Quazariya Williams.

Including the girl and her mother, police said there were five people in the car when Page opened fire.

Robeson County Jail records show that Page is facing several charges, which are listed below:

• First-degree murder
• Attempted first-degree murder
• Discharging firearm into occupied property
• Possession of a firearm by a felon
• Discharging a firearm in city limits

Records show he was denied bond and remains in custody.

Man accused of shooting, killing elderly relatives at North Carolina home

Copyright 2024 WBTV. All rights reserved.

North Carolina voters may have rejected her at the ballot box Tuesday, but Michele Morrow is hoping President-elect Donald Trump won’t when he takes office in January.

Morrow, a Republican homeschooling advocate who lost to Democrat Mo Green in the race to become North Carolina’s superintendent of public schools, is now asking Trump to name her as the new U.S. Secretary of Education.

Most education policy and funding in the U.S. is carried out by state and local governments, not the federal government. The federal education department’s priorities include administering a program focused on boosting funding to schools in low-income areas, administering student loans and policing schools and colleges for allegations of racial or gender-based discrimination.

Morrow said she’d look to slash the department’s work on racial equity and withhold funding from states that disagree, saying it goes against a “pro-America” approach to schooling.

“They have been literally been tying the hands of the states and saying, ‘You are not going to receive your education dollars from us unless you have [critical race theory] trainings for teachers, unless you have a [diversity, equity and inclusion] program in every one of your counties, unless you are participating in the [social and emotional learning] program,’” Morrow said. “I think we should do the opposite. I think we should say, ‘Alright, you are not going to be receiving funds unless you are pushing a pro-America — a pro-excellence-in-education — merit-based system.’”

A petition on a website associated with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a Trump ally, puts forward Morrow to be considered for the education department post. The website enables regular people to make nominations for a variety of government roles. The website says the nominations are for the purposes of public discourse.

Morrow said she didn’t write the nomination herself but would be honored to take the job. She added she hadn’t spoken with anyone on the Trump campaign or White House transition team about it.

Although Morrow lost the statewide race to lead North Carolina’s schools this year — and also lost a 2022 race for a school board seat in Wake County — she said she thinks her views resonated with Republican voters, even if it wasn’t enough voters to carry her to victory in a state Trump also won. Trump beat Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris 51% to 48% this year; Morrow lost to Green by a similar margin.

A spokesman for the North Carolina Democratic Party pointed to Morrow’s lack of success in elections, questioning if Trump would support someone with that record, and added that if Trump did put Morrow in charge of the education department, she “would destroy public schools in America.”

During her run for state superintendent, Morrow had said that, if elected, she’d have North Carolina reject the billion-plus dollars it receives in federal funding for schools. She told WRAL Monday that if Trump picked her to run the department, she’d be similarly focused on making budget cuts on a larger scale.

“I think things are very bloated in D.C.,” she said. “How many people are actually in the U.S. Department of Education? Is it 1,000? Is it 5,000? Is it 10,000 people? That needs to be looked at and streamlined.”

The Department of Education has 4,400 employees, according to its website, which says it’s the smallest of all 15 cabinet-level federal agencies.