NEW ORLEANS- The 12-year-old girl killed by crossfire Sunday had graduated from her elementary school a week before. Her principal was driving when he heard the news and had to pull over.

"She was a kid being a kid. She unfortunately was a victim of what's happening far too often in the city of young people being in the wrong place at the wrong time," Schaumburg Elementary Principal Maurice McMorris told WWL-TV Tuesday.

Todriana Peters was with her 18-year-old cousin Brione Rodgers Sunday night. They stopped at a party near 500 block of Delery Street to get a phone charger so Rodgers could call their grandmother.

"We were at that party for maybe five, 10 minutes," Rodgers said Tuesday. "And that happened. We were just going to charge my phone."

Someone opened fire from a car rounding the corner of Chartres Street about 10:30 p.m. neighbors and an eyewitness said. Two other men -- ages 18 and 19 -- were also injured before the car sped away.

A woman who attended the party brought Peters into her home and tried to help her, but she died shortly after the shooting.

On Tuesday, even as Peters’ family was planning her funeral, her cousin tried to make peace with what has happened. She had a message for her cousin’s killers.

"Even though they took away someone I love, I forgive them," she said.