A 13-year-old Texas girl has died after briefly slipping into a coma following a fight with two schoolmates who jumped her on her walk home from school, the girl’s family announced Wednesday.
Kashala Francis was headed home from Attucks Middle School in Houston last Thursday was she was attacked by two girls, with a third jumping in to kick her in the head. Much of the fight was captured on video, and at least one of the girls involved is heard laughing as Harris is punched and kicked.
Kashala Francis, 13, slipped into a coma on April 21 after being jumped by several girls on her way home from school three days earlier. (Image courtesy of KTRK)
“I can see these girls kicking her in the head while the other children are laughing at her,” Mamie Jackson, Francis’s mother, told Houston’s KTRK, wiping away tears.
The seventh-grader died at Texas Children’s Hospital on Wednesday, where doctors discovered a large tumor in the back of her head that was possibly exacerbated by the fight. Still, officials say it’s too early to tell if the injuries from the fight caused Francis’ death or if she passed away as a result of the tumor.
According to Houston Police Department spokesman Victor Senties, the incident is being investigated as a homicide pending an autopsy to confirm Francis’ official cause of death.
“Until the autopsy is finished, we won’t know,” Senties told ABC News.
So far, no arrests have been made in the case.
Jackson said her daughter arrived home with bruises on her face after Thursday’s attack but insisted she was fine. By Saturday, Francis briefly became delusional while visiting a relative’s house and called her mom complaining of a severe headache the following morning.
“I drove over and I told her to get up,” her mother told KTRK. “I said, ‘Get up, Kashala.’ She kept saying, ‘Mama, my head hurts,’ so she laid down.”
It was the last time Jackson would see her daughter open her eyes.
The middle school student was rushed to a local children’s hospital after falling unconscious, and that’s when doctors found the tumor. Francis’ family said they were unaware of the mass until doctors discovered it on Sunday.
“We found out she has a large tumor in the back of her head, and she had fluid buildup in her brain,” Jackson recalled.
Kashala’s death follows a similar incident in Walterboro, S.C., where 10-year-old Raniya Wright died two days after a classroom fight with another student. Last Friday, the South Carolina solicitor announced no charges would be filed after a pathologist determined Raniya had a rare birth defect, arteriovenous malformation, that caused her death.
Authorities said the fight involving Francis remains under investigation.
The Houston Independent School District issued a statement Wednesday saying it was aware of “an off-campus altercation on Thursday” involving several Attucks Middle School students and that the district is cooperating with the police investigation.
According to KTRK, Francis’ family has launched a Facebook donation page to help cover the young girl’s medical expenses. So far, the page has raised just over $9,000.
Watch more in the video below.
