Family mourns death of innocent teen killed in Lynwood gang shooting

LYNWOOD, Calif. (KABC) -- A family was mourning the death of a 16-year-old girl struck down in the family car by a stray bullet from a gang shooting in Lynwood.

Family described 16-year-old Danah Rojo as a girl with a beautiful smile and a bright light in a dark world.

The teen was caught in the gunfire Wednesday night.

Danah was in the car with her mother and brother, Ethan Rojo. The three had just attended a Thanksgiving gathering at New Horizon Missionary Baptist church in Lynwood.

"It's the most devastating thing my mom and I have experienced in our lives," an emotional Ethan explained. "She was just starting out life. There was no need for those events to occur. She was taken much, much too early than we thought."

Ethan said that as church members stepped up to share what they are thankful for, his sister playfully texted him and their mother.

"She said, 'Aren't you going to say you're thankful for such a beautiful sister/daughter that you have?' And we just looked up at her and laughed," Ethan said with a smile.

Danah volunteered at the church where she grew up. That night, as usual, she ran a projector screen during the service, then Thanksgiving dinner was held in a room where her last photo was taken.

That picture was now on a GoFundMe page set up to help Danah's single mother with funeral expenses.

Ethan said his mother and Danah were like two peas in a pod. They were best friends, and his young sister may have saved her best friend's life.

"If she wouldn't have caught the bullet, it would have hit my mom," he said.

The family was asking the person responsible for taking Danah's life to come forward

"It's my little sister you killed," he said. "Thanks to you, she won't live the life she wanted, the life we wanted for her."