It’s still unclear exactly what happened on the afternoon of Dec. 21, 2025, when 13-year-old Jaleeyah Tune was shot and killed while walking home with her sister. Three teens were arrested in connection with her death, according to the Goldsboro Police Department.
Tune’s family will not speak publicly about what they believe happened that day. But in the months since her death, her mother, Whitney Brown-Tune, has pushed lawmakers to strengthen North Carolina’s gang laws.
“This bill is not just a paper to me,” Brown-Tune said Friday at Goldsboro City Hall. “This is my child’s name, this is my pain, this is my fight, and this is my purpose to believe that I will keep speaking to her.”
Brown-Tune spoke during a press conference announcing House Bill 1173, known as “Jaleeyah’s Law,” which would expand how the state defines gang membership and increase penalties tied to gang-related crimes.
“I lost my baby, and things need to change,” she said.
If approved, the legislation would make some of the biggest changes to North Carolina’s gang laws since the state passed the Gang Suppression Act in 2008.
The proposal would lower the threshold for law enforcement to charge someone with being a gang member or engaging in gang activity.
Lawmakers, prosecutors and State Bureau of Investigation officials said the current law makes gang cases difficult to prosecute.
Rep. John Bell (R-Wayne), the bill’s primary sponsor, said Brown-Tune first brought him ideas after her daughter’s death.
“We’re here today because a mother said, ‘I lost my daughter, but we’re not gonna lose another one,’” Bell said.
Bell, the state House Rules committee chairman, said the proposal was developed with input from the State Bureau of Investigation and the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys.
The bill would create two statewide resource prosecutors and a criminal investigator focused on gang-related cases, drug trafficking and organized crime investigations. It would also allow prosecutors to bring gang-related cases in any county where part of the alleged criminal activity occurred.
Chuck Spahos, a lobbyist for the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys, said prosecutors need stronger tools to handle gang cases.
“Hopefully, some good can come, and some badly needed tweaks to existing law,” Spahos said. “Some enhancements in the existing law can put some real teeth in North Carolina’s gang suppression statute.”
Bell said the bill is aimed at reducing gang violence and holding organizers accountable, including those who direct or solicit younger people to commit crimes.
“You’ve got to be able to go after every single one of them and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law,” he said.
When asked how the bill would have changed the circumstances in Jaleeyah’s case, Bell said he could not speak to details of the investigation, but said lawmakers need broader tools to prosecute organized violence.
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Critics said that the bill would set too low a threshold for identifying someone as a gang member, allowing that designation based on two criteria instead of three under current law.
Those criteria can include tattoos, clothing, hand signs, language associated with gangs, social media posts promoting gangs, and identification by what state law describes as a “reliable source,” including a parent or guardian.
“We have some First Amendment and due process concerns about allowing someone to be deemed a criminal gang member … based on merely two criteria,” said Reighlah Collins, policy counsel for the ACLU of North Carolina in a statement to NC Newsline.
The organization also criticized the bill’s sentencing increases, arguing that longer prison terms do not effectively deter crime.
“H1173 furthers the trend of overcriminalization by adding new offenses and increasing penalties for things that are already crimes, putting more people behind bars with longer sentences,” Collins said. “Instead of investing in our communities, lawmakers are reinforcing the systems that push more people into the criminal legal system.
Bell pushed back on the criticism that the bill could lead to overcriminalization.
“I would 100% disagree with that,” he told NC Newsline.
The bill is scheduled to be heard Tuesday in the House Judiciary Committee. Rep. Sarah Stevens (R-Surry), the committee’s chair, said lawmakers plan to “move it forward as quickly as we can.”
Jaleeyah’s family believes the bill could help prevent other families from experiencing the same loss.
“These past couple months have been real tough,” said Michael Johnson, Jaleeyah’s father. “Our sacrifice won’t be for nothing.”
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