11-year-old girl dies after crashing stolen vehicle in Opelousas while fleeing from police

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An 11-year-old girl was killed in an overnight crash in Opelousas.

"It's bad when you cry all day, all day until you think you got no more cry left in you," said the victim's aunt Robbin Gradnigo.

Gradnigo says her niece Bryla Bell was picked up at her mother's house in Lawtell by two unknown male suspects in a stolen vehicle. The family says they don't know the male suspects, and they don't know how the two individuals knew Bryla. Gradnigo also says Bryla's mother heard the two male suspects pick her daughter up, and she tried to follow them in her vehicle, but was unable to catch up to them and lost them at a certain point. The mother said she then called police.

Opelousas police located the vehicle and tried to stop it before the vehicle fled, according to a spokesperson for the police department.

The spokesperson says an officer saw a male suspect get out of the vehicle near the Walgreens on Creswell Lane. A witness claims they saw two male suspects get out of the vehicle. At this time, police are trying to verify two male suspects were involved with help of surveillance footage.

The suspects allegedly fled the vehicle while it was still moving. Bryla allegedly took control of the wheel and then continued to flee from officers before crashing into a tree at St. Landry Catholic Church on N Main Street.

"They told me to just wait there, and after about two minutes, I said, 'I can't wait any longer,'" said Crystal Bell Edmund, Bryla's mother, through tears. "Like, I need to know if my child is in that truck. But, I didn't know that when I would get to the end of the road, she would've been dead."

Her mother takes that road every day to get to work.

"Poor little Bryla was scared. Eleven-years-old, she was terrified; she was terrified. And, she didn't expect someone to just get out of a moving car and just leave her there. It's just natural instinct, you know, to take over the wheel... But, how are you going to leave an 11-year-old child in the vehicle, a running vehicle, a moving vehicle?" lamented her aunt.

Police confirmed the vehicle was stolen. Bryla's aunt says her niece was not responsible for stealing the vehicle.

Now, her family is pleading to anyone who might have the answers about what happened that night.

"If, you know, she's dead, come and bring yourselves forward, so we can know whats going on. You know, why were you picking up an 11-year-old child? You know, we really want to know what happened. If you weren't doing anything wrong, come forward and give the mamma closure, so she can know what happened. That's all we want to know, you know, that's all we want to know," said Gradnigo.

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