KEY POINTS:
The 2-year-old girl killed in the Wanganui drive-by shooting was inquisitive, intelligent and immaculately cared for by her mother, her kohanga reo says.
Lisa Reweti, administrator at Te Heti Kura Te Kohanga Reo, said staff were devastated by the death of the girl, whose first name was Jhia.
"We're all just feeling such a big loss," Ms Reweti said. "What a waste of a beautiful little girl, and she's so innocent. She's been caught up in something that had nothing to do with such a darling little child."
Ms Reweti declined to give the girl's surname, saying she was not sure if she used her mother's or father's name.
Jhia is understood to have been an only child, and was related to other children at the kohanga.
Ms Reweti said the little girl was always dressed in lovely clothes - "cute little jackets and nice shoes" - and freshly bathed.
"We always used to comment on how immaculately she was kept. She always smelled nice. She'd run up to us and we'd all grab her and have a big sniff of her because she always smelled gorgeous.
"She was a real little darling, a gorgeous child. We can always tell if a child gets the best at home and I can really say that her mother was very, very good with her."
Jhia lived with her mother at the house where she was killed. It is not known if her father, whose name is Josh, was visiting or lived there too, but he was there when she was shot on Saturday night.
Ms Reweti, who knows Jhia's mother but has never met Josh, said Jhia was also renowned for abiding by the kohanga's rules of "no chippies or roll-ups".
"She always came with a healthy lunch in her lunchbox, always packed nicely. You could really tell that her mother went out of her way to make sure Jhia had what she needed."
Just last week, the little girl had graduated from the "babies' room" into a class with older children on the advice of her teacher "Nanny Vicky".
"She had advanced so much that Nanny Vicky had decided that she was good enough to move up into the next class."
Ms Reweti said she went to inform the elderly teacher of the tragedy in person.
"I went over there myself so she didn't have to find out through the news or whatever. It's a very, very sad time for all of us."
