12-year-old girl shot, killed while sleeping in her bed; her father ‘can’t fathom how this happened’

DAYTON — The father of a 12-year-old who was shot and killed while sleeping in her bed is trying to wrap his head around how this tragedy happened.

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“I just don’t understand why y’all killed my 12-year-old baby,” Michael Nooks said just hours after the death of his 12-year-old daughter Isabellas Amor-Carlos.

Amor-Carlos was asleep in her upstairs bedroom in the first block of W. Third Street when gunshots rang out shortly after midnight.

>> RELATED: 12-year-old girl shot, killed while sleeping in her bed; Police say ‘we must solve this’

“As soon as I went to check to see if the front door was locked, my youngest daughter called my name. She was like ‘Dad! Dad!’ and I was like ‘What?’ She’s like “Bella,” so I flew upstairs and I found her and I was like ‘Oh my God,’” Nooks said.

Nooks said he tried to resuscitate his daughter but was unsuccessful.

“As a dad, I can’t save her. How do you think that makes me feel?” he said. “I cannot save her, so I feel horrid.”

Now, he and his family are left to grieve their “intelligent, sweet” daughter who “always wanted to help somebody.”

“I just don’t understand it. That’s just the story, all of a sudden three bullets go to her room and now she’s gone,” Nooks said.

Amor-Carlos was a 7th-grade student at Charity Adams Earley Girls Academy. As reported on News Center 7 at 5:00, Nooks said he went to the school today to tell them about her death.

“I mean we went up to the school and told them at Charity Adams that she would never be back again,” he said

Dayton Public Schools Superintendent Dr. David Lawrence called Amor-Carlos an “important member of the Charity Adams community.”

“I’m still trying to cope because I can’t fathom how this happened,” Nooks told News Center 7. “Make it make sense.”

Amor-Carlos is the eighth juvenile to be killed by gunfire in Dayton this year. Her father said something has to change.

“All this has got to stop,” he said. “I mean, it’s too much access to people handling guns that don’t know how to handle guns. You don’t know how to shoot, why you got a gun?”

Police two to three homes were shot at overnight on W. Fairview Avenue. They believe two shooters are responsible for firing off over 30 shots.

“We must solve this,” Dayton Police Major Brian Johns said.

Police are asking that anyone with information on the shooting contact Miami Valley Crime Stoppers at either (937) 222-7867 or https://www.miamivalleycrimestoppers.com/.

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