Community comes together for family of Bryan 7-year-old who was killed

The Central Texas community has raised more than $17,000 for funeral expenses for the family of seven-year-old Quinece Turner, who was struck and killed by lightning.

• According to a GoFundMe page, Quinece and her family were outside when a storm blew through and lightning struck her Thursday — she was taken to a nearby hospital but she didn’t make it.
• The Kemp-Carver Elementary School and local community came together to support the family through a prayer vigil.
• The funeral will be held this Friday at 11 a.m. at New Birth Baptist Church in Bryan.

Broadcast Script:

“To love one another while we can.”

— that was the message at Tuesday night’s prayer vigil for Quinece Turner.

“It has made me value every moment, to take those moments, to teach them, to love on them, to take those moments and just say, you know, 'I don't know what the next minute may bring, so I want to hug on you, kiss on you, and let you know that Dad loves you more than life itself'," Quinard Richards said.

Marcus Turner is a teacher at Kemp-Carver Elementary School, where Quinece was a first grader — but he wasn’t just her teacher.

“I had the privilege of not only being a teacher here, a worker here — I'm also her cousin," Turner said.

Mr. Turner helped organize the vigil when he heard what happened Thursday.

“I received a call saying that one of the students had passed, and I said, 'Student?' — and then they told me the young lady's name — Quinice Turner," he said.

"I said, 'What?' — and then they asked me, 'Would I come to the hospital' — when I got to the hospital, the Lord had already called her name.”

According to a GoFundMe page organized for the family, Quinece and her family were outside when a storm blew through and lightning struck her — she was taken to a nearby hospital but she didn’t make it.

Turner says he wants the family to know they can count on their neighbors.

“We are there to pick them up, not only through prayer, but actually physically being there for them," he said.

"They need a shoulder to cry on — that's what we are doing.”

The funeral will be held this Friday at 11 a.m. at New Birth Baptist Church in Bryan.