10-year-old Ta'Niyah Thomas shot and killed during home invasion.

Ta'Niyah Thomas was a bright, hardworking fourth-grader at Washington Park Elementary who liked to ride around on her electric scooter. She was a cheerleader, a big sister, a smiling brown-eyed girl. Just 10 years old.

Frightened by gunfire coming from outside the apartment door early Monday morning, she was heading toward her mother's bedroom when she was shot in the head, Washington, Pa., authorities said. She died about 30 minutes later in the emergency room at Washington Hospital. "If she had stayed in her bed, she'd have been safe," city police Lt. Detective Daniel Stanek said.

Washington city police believe the apartment in the building at 450 W. Chestnut St. had been the target of an attempted home invasion.