Teenage girl hit & killed walking with friends on side of road in Balch Springs

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A 17-year-old girl was killed Friday night when she was hit by a car in Balch Springs.

Akiya Jackson was walking home from the store on the side of McKenzie Road near Pioneer Road with her brother and a friend when all three were hit by a pick up truck.

"I was very proud of her, she was like my backbone, she was responsible, she was like a mother to her little sisters and brothers, everything," said Chantovia Jackson, Akiya's mother.
 
"What do you tell your child when they just want to go to the store? They just wanted to go to the store," said Tawanna Handy, mother of Jackson's friend who sustained non-life threatening injuries.

Akiya's brother was not seriously injured.

"How can you not see the three children in the street? That's what I want to know, and how can you hit all three of them, all three of them," said Handy.

Jackson's mother says Akiya was a talented singer, a junior at Mesquite High School who also held a job and dreamed of joining the Marines after graduation.

"Sweet, kind, just respectful, mannerable, she was just a good girl, a free spirit," said Jackson.

Akiya's family says they have a lot of questions about what happened. 

The surviving witnesses say they were walking on the side of the road when they were hit. 

"It's very dark, there's no sidewalk. It is a two-way street and there are spaces on the side of the streets where the kids can walk," said Handy.

Balch Springs Police are investigating the crash, but they have not released any information about the driver or if that person will be charged.

"I don't have a lot of answers and I have a lot of questions. I want to know, who this person is, where is he, if he's going to be charged," said Handy.