Raleigh 14-year-old girl was killed days after fight at school

A Raleigh teen girl shot and killed in April had been in a fight at school days before the murder, according to newly obtained search warrants.

Police found 14-year-old Mykia Daniel with a gunshot wound to the head at The Trails of North Hills Apartments on the morning of April 22.

Zylon Abrams, 16, was indicted with first-degree murder in connection to her death on May 13. He will be charged as an adult.

A warrant shows Daniel was in a fight with someone at Ligon Middle School, where she was a student, on April 12. The fight led to suspensions for Daniel and the other student. Ligon students told school administrators they believed Daniel was killed as a result of the fight and escalating tension around it.

Other new details showed that Daniel’s family learned about the death on social media. Daniel’s mother called 911 around 2:30 a.m. after getting reports that Daniel was dead inside an apartment on North Hills Drive. No gun was found at the apartment, but a shell casing was discovered in another room.

Investigators found evidence of the crime on Instagram. Daniel’s sister found out about her death on the platform when Abrams messaged her and said he was turning himself in and didn’t intend to shoot her.

“Wanted to [say] I’m sorry,” a part of one message said.

Warrants said Abrams asked police if he could get the gun used in the murder back.

Detectives found a video posted by Abrams, stating that ‘they’ intended to scare Daniel and not kill her, according to warrants. One photo on the suspect’s account shows Abrams and the victim together with “I’m sorryyyyy” in the caption.

The case was transferred to Superior Court. According to the warrant, Abrams told police Daniel had taken pictures and video of herself on his phone and there were pictures of the gun used in the crime on the device.

The warrants were sealed for 90 days and became publicly available on Wednesday.

Daniel was an eighth grader at Ligon and lived in southeast Raleigh.