LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) Lafayette police are investigating the murder of 16-year-old Ja’nya Hebert, who died early Sunday morning.

Officials say she was sitting in the passenger seat of a vehicle when an unknown suspect fired a gun into the vehicle striking Ja’nya in the back.

The suspects then fled the scene and left Ja’nya to die.

Her mother is now speaking out in hopes of finding her daughter’s killer.

“She had a future, and they took that away from her,” Ja’nya’s mother, Kysha Mouton, said.

Ja’nya’s mother says her dreams of becoming a dancer were torn away from her at only 16-years-old.

“They stole my baby. I just want my baby back, and I can’t get her back,” she told News Ten.

Early Sunday morning, Ja’nya was killed.

Her mom recalls the last time she saw her, only a few hours before.

“She walked out my room, and I went to sleep. That was the last time I saw or heard my baby.”
Hours later, she got a phone call.

“I answered, and it was her little friend. She was crying and hollering, and she was like, ‘Mrs. Kysha, Ja’nya just got shot, and she’s not breathing.”

Ja’nya’s mother rushed to the scene, where her 16-year-old daughter was dying.

“When I got there, she was already in the back of the ambulance, and they had the door kind of open. I saw them working on her.”

Ja’nya’s injuries were too severe and she later died.

“I just want my baby back,” her mother said.

She says she only has one question.

“Why? Why take my baby? What did she do so wrong for you to take her life? She didn’t deserve it at all,” Ja’nya’s mother told News Ten.

Lafayette police say Ja’nya’s killer fled the scene after fatally shooting her.

Officials are urging anyone with information about this homicide to call Lafayette Police or Lafayette Crime Stoppers at 232-TIPS.