11-year-old girl killed in drive-by shooting in Milwaukee was “loving big sister”: grandmother

The grandmother of an 11-year-old Milwaukee girl killed in a weekend car shootout that also injured her 5-year-old sister said on Monday the children were returning from a birthday party with their mother when an armed man opened fire on their car.

Ta’Niyla Parker’s death sparked widespread outrage in Milwaukee and community activists took to the streets with “Stop Killing Our Children” signs.

“She was very intelligent, outgoing. She was a loving big sister to her little sister, ”Ta’Niyla’s grandmother, Janice Little, told ABC News on Monday.

Little said that she was Ta’Niyla’s legal guardian and that the child had lived with her since birth.

“I hope they are caught and arrested,” Little said of her granddaughter’s killer.

The shooting took place around 9 p.m. Saturday in the Sherman Park neighborhood of northwest Milwaukee, according to the Milwaukee Police Department. A vehicle stopped next to the family’s car and gunshots erupted, police said.

Sherman Park resident Kristofer Koneazny told ABC affiliate station WISN in Milwaukee that he called 911 after hearing about 15 shots in rapid succession.

No arrests were made in the homicide and police are still trying to identify the person (s) responsible for the shooting, authorities said.

Police said a parent was driving the car and took the injured children to the District 7 Police Station a few blocks away, where officers provided first aid and called Milwaukee Fire Paramedics.

The sisters were taken to Milwaukee Children’s Hospital, where the oldest died early Sunday morning, police said.

Little said her daughter, Talea Hairston, was driving the girls to her house when the shooting took place.

She said Hairston took her daughters to a friend’s birthday party at a Chuck E. Cheese in Milwaukee.

“She called around 9 am. I think she’s calling to say, ‘Come open the door because I’m about to drop the kids off,'” Little said. “But she just called and started screaming and screaming and said, ‘The babies were shot. “”

She said her youngest grandson suffered non-life threatening injuries.

” She is going better. She’s walking now and they said she could probably come home today, ”Little said.

She said Ta’Niyla was a sixth grader and enjoyed drawing cartoons on her cell phone.

“She loved her anime,” Little said, referring to a Japanese style of cartoons. “She was doing it all on her phone. She loved doing it.”

Community activists from the Sherman Park neighborhood took to the streets on Sunday afternoon to call attention to the tragedy.

“I’m a father myself and seeing what happened… the senseless act of violence where a little child has to die, I think that’s enough,” Walter Garron of community social justice group Brown Berets told WISN. .

Garron was one of many community activists holding up signs that read “Stop Killing Our Children”.

“We’re trying to educate people so people know there are other people here watching,” Garron said, “and we care about their families and the community and we want that to stop.”