Black & Missing : Brianna Stewart missing after heated confrontation

Update: Brianna Stewart has been found safe.

Original story:

Authorities are searching for a Virginia teen who went missing one day after a confrontation involving her mother and a group of boys turned violent, leading her mother to shoot a gun into the air.

Brianna Stewart, 15, was last seen Sunday morning at her grandmother’s house. She’d been staying there after the confrontation.

Reported from NBC:

Stewart’s mother, Lakisha Gaither, 35, told News4 that her daughter had been involved in an argument with other teens in their Woodbridge, Va., neighborhood Saturday. She said a teenage girl who appeared to be angry with Stewart showed up to the family’s home, along with a group of boys.

Later that night, Gaither decided to speak with the girl’s mother. When she arrived at an apartment complex in the 1900 block of Gable Ridge Turn, she said the group of boys who had come to her home earlier that day had returned — and this time, one of the boys punched her daughter in the face.

“He didn’t walk away. He hit her and kept coming for her,” Gaither said.

After seeing her daughter get punched repeatedly, Gaither said she took things into her own hands.

“I was in the parking lot, not near anybody, the buildings or anything,” Gaither said. “I unholstered my weapon and shot straight in the air, one shot to get him off of my child and to break this group up.”

Authorities called

Police were quickly called to the scene, and Gaither, a registered gun owner, was charged with reckless handling of a firearm, a misdemeanor. No one was injured and Gaither was later released from jail, a police report states.

Several hours after the incident and fearing for her daughter’s life, Gaither asked her mother to take Stewart for the night.

“I just wanted the situation to calm down,” Gaither said. “I didn’t want them retaliating.”

Sunday around 8:30 a.m., Gaither said her mother called her and told her Stewart was nowhere to be found. No one has seen or heard from Stewart since that morning.

“I don’t know where she [is],” Gaither said, fighting back tears. “I don’t know if she’s OK; I don’t know if she’s safe; I don’t know if she’s hurt. There’s been no activity on her Facebook.”

Brianna Stewart is 5’9″, weighs 160 pounds and has dimples on her cheeks.

Source : NBC
Photo Credit : NBC