On March 12, 2022, 11-year-old Makayla Renee Martin was killed in a domestic violence shooting at a home on Vega Lane in Killeen, Texas. Police were called about 11 a.m.; officers found Makayla dead at the scene and her 6-year-old cousin, Alyssa Whitfield, critically injured. Alyssa later died at McLane Children’s Hospital. Their mother’s husband, 39-year-old Kendrick Donnell Gaines, was arrested at the scene and charged with capital murder.

He was held in the Bell County Jail on $2.5 million bond. Danielle Whitfield, Gaines’s wife and the children’s mother, was injured in the altercation and survived. The community held a candlelight vigil and a GoFundMe was set up to help cover funeral expenses.

What information can readers share about Makayla, Alyssa, or the events that morning?