BUCKHEAD, Ga. — One of the victims killed in a Buckhead club shooting over the weekend has been identified as a rising senior and volleyball player at Albany State University.
Mari Creighton, 21, was shot and killed in an early morning shooting at Elleven45 Lounge in Buckhead on Sunday.
Police said a single shooter opened fire at the club and shot six people, including Creighton and 20-year-old Nakyris M. Ridley, who were killed.
Creighton's friend, Mouhamed Gueye, said he got a call from another one of his best friends telling him that Creighton had been shot and killed.
“This one really hurts. It really, really hurts,” Gueye said. “I don't know how I’d be able to cope with this pain, honestly... 'Cause she didn't deserve this. She didn't.”
Gueye said he hoped law enforcement finds whoever did this to his best friend who he said was more like his little sister.
“She was such a bright soul. She's always ready to laugh, to go out and have fun and make other people laugh. So, just to know that somebody carelessly took her life. That really put me in like a bad state,” Gueye described, sighing. “My heart, my prayers, my thoughts go out to her family, to the Albany State University volleyball program, to our close friends. This was tragic, and it was so sudden.”
Gueye said he wished he could comfort Creighton’s mother during this time.
“To lose your child on Mother's Day – that has to be the saddest thing ever. I can't even imagine the pain and the trauma that she's going through. Like, if I could just see her right now and just give her the biggest hug in the world and just cry with her," Gueye said.
It’s an act that reminds him of his best friend.
“Everybody knows, when Mari hugs you, Mari’s going to squeeze. Like she's going to hug you. So I’m just like, dang ... I’m going to miss those hugs,” he said.