Reward offered after 12-year girl shot inside home on Long Island

HEMPSTEAD (WABC) -- A radiant and feisty little girl with a huge heart is how loved ones describe 12-year-old Dejah Joyner, who was inside the living room of her family's home on Dartmouth St. in Hempstead when a stray bullet pierced through the front window early Friday evening and struck her in the head.

"She was a happy kid - a very happy kid," said Dejah's grandfather, David.

Burdened by grief and barely able to stand, her grandfather and relatives recalled how Dejah loved to sing and dance. They say she was always involved in something, and believed she was destined to touch other lives.

"Maybe she wanted to be a school teacher, because she always played school with her nieces and nephews and stuff they always played school with the little dolls," David adds.

The tragic and senseless shooting now has both police and local leaders aggressively devoting resources to the investigation...and a $75,000 reward is now being offered for any information leading to an arrest.

"We are going to aggressively investigate this case. We will turn over every rock, and we will find the person responsible for this," says Thomas C. Krumpter of the Nassau Count y Police Department.

Now, as many thoughts and prayers remain with Dejah's family, her loved ones are hoping someone who may have seen or heard something will step forward, so no other families have to experience a pain like this.

"Very senseless - you know she didn't deserve this no one deserves any of that any violence," says Dejah's aunt, Sheril Lanier.

Dejah remains in grave condition at the hospital.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 1-800-244-TIPS (8477).