'Stay with me little angel': Tragic last moments of best friends, 15 and 16, found riddled with 36 bullets and lying bleeding on the street after mystery gunman opened fire

Bobbie Sartain, 16, and Raquel Gerstel, 15, shot dead Sunday morning

Neighbors rushed out to help girls after hearing barrage of gunfire;



Police said 36 shots were fired

Gunman still remains at large



Neighbours have told how they comforted a dying teen as she and her best friend lay dying on the street after being riddled with bullets.



Bobbie Sartain, 16, and Raquel Gerstel,15, were shot to death early Sunday morning and found on opposite sides of an Oakland road by horrified neighbours, bloody and riddled with bullets.

Resident Monique Jefferson said she held Sartain's hands and told her: 'Stay with me angel, you're safe now' before the 16-year-old died.



It came as the devastated mother of a teen gunned down alongside her best friend on a California street said she had no idea why the two girls were targeted.

Distraught, Bambi Sartain begged for witnesses to come forward to help piece together the shocking tragedy, which saw her lose her 'beautiful girl.'



Fast friends: Bobbie Sartain and Raquel Gerstel had grown up together until they met their tragically early deaths

'I don't know why someone would do this to my daughter,' she told the Mercury News . 'She had no money, no nothing. She was just a baby.'

'Anyone who knows of any witnesses, please come forward, even anonymously. I beg of you. I would do anything to get closure.'



The girls, who had been inseparable for years, had turned up at the mobile home of Bobbie's relative Chuck Briggs in the pre-dawn hours of Sunday.

Mr Briggs told them to go to sleep after Raquel began arguing with someone on her cell phone, according to Mercury News.

'They mouthed off a little,' Bambi Sartain told the newspaper. 'Her uncle told her to leave, and Raquel wanted to leave and Bobbie went with her. 'They were best friends. She'd do anything out of loyalty.'

Tragic: Raquel Gerstel, pictured left with a different friend, was still alive when neighbours rushed to her aide

The pair reportedly walked to nearby Union 76 gas station on High Street just before 5am.

'They didn't say where they (had been) or where they were going' Ms Sartain said.

The teens were found about an hour later having been shot nearly 40 times. Neighbours who heard the gunshots ran outside and sat with the girls, holding their hands until help arrived.

Jayne Nayman said the barrage of bullets woke her up and her son, Jed Hamilton, 36, rushed out to Bobbie and Raquel's aide.



One of the girls was still alive, Nayman told the Mercury News.

'My son held her hand. 'I was afraid to go outside, but my son, he's fearless.'

Police arrived within 90 seconds, she said, after which her son ran back to their home, crying.

Raquel Gerstel: The 15-year-old was found 'full of bullets' by local resident Monique Jefferson, who told her: 'Stay with me angel. You¿re safe now'

'He said, "Don't go out there mom. Stay inside. The blood. It's bad."'



Resident Monique Jefferson also ran out after spotting the girls on the pavement.



'(Gerstel) was full of bullets,' she told the San Francisco Chronicle . 'I kept telling her, 'Stay with me angel. You’re safe now.'"

But both teenagers soon succumbed to their injuries and were pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

Ms Sartain said her daughter was an aspiring veterinarian.



'She was a good girl and she got caught up with something she shouldn't have been involved in,' she said. 'She was a teenager and kind of unruly, but I thought there was more time.'

'She had a bright future. I'll never be able to get over (her death) in my lifetime. She was my heart.'

Bobbie Sartain: The 16-year-old had had an argument with her mother's boyfriend on the night she was murdered

Raquel's father, Barton Gerstel, said that he was crushed by his daughter’s death.



'She's going to be missed. I love her and my heart is torn,' he told the Chronicle.



Friends and family members had put together memorials on the street on Wednesday for the two girls with roses, candles and teddy bears.

An anonymous note read, 'Sweetheart: Though I did not know you before, I felt great love for you as you were going somewhere else. I promise I will do everything in my power to make sure this was not in vain.'

A school district official at Arroyo High School in San Lorenzo, where Raquel went, sent her condolences to the victims' families.

The girls were killed near where Minna Avenue meets Brookdale Park, an area that is typically crime free

'We're all so sad -- our hearts go out to the families,' Sharon Lampel, assistant superintendent of human resources at San Lorenzo Unified School District told the Mercury News. 'And we're here for our students and staff who need to get through this.'



The girls' deaths mark the 114th and 115th homicides in the California city this year alone, with Raquel the youngest reported slaying.



While the areas surrounding Minna Avenue near Brookdale Park are notorious for prostitution, the neighborhood where the teenagers were shot is largely crime free.



Police do not currently have any suspects but are offering a $10,000 reward for any information regarding the teenagers' homicides.







