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Teen's Death: 'Some Guy Just Started Shooting'

By Andrea Flores

THORNTON, Colo. (CBS4) - Emotions ran high at a vigil in Thornton Saturday night as friends remembered 16-year-old Haley Vargaz, the teen they say was shot and killed at a party Saturday morning.

"I talked to her every day and now it's like I have that part of me missing," said Vargaz's best friend, who did not want to be identified.

Teens told CBS4 the party was cut short just before 2 a.m.

Two sisters, who did not want to be identified, tried to keep Vargaz alive until police got to the scene.

Vargaz
Haley Vargaz (credit: CBS)

"Some guy just started shooting in the house and everybody started running to their cars, and I saw a girl just fall in the middle of the street," said one teen. "Nobody was helping her, so we just couldn't leave her there by herself."

Another teen stepped in and tried to save her.

Haley Vargaz
Haley Vargaz (credit: CBS)

"I grabbed my friend's shirt and I just wrapped it around my hand and just put it over the wound to stop the bleeding," said another teen who did not want to be identified.

The shooter is described as a thin Hispanic male, in his late teens or early 20s, with brown hair, glasses, and a gold hoop nose ring.

Now, Vargaz's friends want to make sure she isn't remembered by how she died, but how she lived.

Haley Vargaz (credit: CBS)
Haley Vargaz (credit: CBS)

"People know her as the girl who got shot right now, but I don't want her to be known as that, I know she wouldn't want to be known as that," said Vargas' best friend. "I just want people to remember her as Haley Vargas, the one who was always smiling and made people smile."

LINK: Haley Vargaz Family Fund

Andrea Flores is a reporter for CBS4. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter @AndreaFloresTV.

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