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MILWAUKEE – A 13-year-old girl from Milwaukee who was killed at home by a stray bullet on Monday night had written an award-winning essay on gun violence, school officials said. Sandra Parks died after an armed man who allegedly shot his ex-girlfriend in front of a nearby house shot in the girl's living room, prosecutors said.
Isaac Barnes, 26, faces charges of first-degree irresponsible homicide, release of a firearm from a building and possession of a firearm by a criminal. The charge of reckless homicide is punishable by up to 60 years in prison.
The Sentinel Journal announced that Sandra had taken third place two years earlier in a city-wide contest with her essay "Our Truth", commemorating the life of Martin Luther King. Sandra wrote that she saw "examples of chaos almost every day" and lamented the "grandchildren" who were victims of "senseless gun violence".
"The world has lost a young woman who had the talent to write and make her friends laugh," officials at the Milwaukee Public Schools said in a statement. "She was appreciated by her teachers and classmates and loved by her family."
Donelle Johnson, coordinator of the Milwaukee Teachers Association's writing contest, Martin Luther King Jr., told WDJT Parks, a CBS affiliate, was a "very articulate" young woman.
"When I received the call this morning, I went to his essay and it was as if it was prophetic … [she was] against gun violence, "said Johnson." In his words, "senseless gun violence."
The girl's mother, Bernice Parks, told the chain that her daughter had written "her feelings, her life, the way people treated her, how she wanted things to happen." At a vigil on Tuesday, she said that she wanted her daughter's writings to be published in her memory.
"My baby will miss me," said Parks. "She was a star."
Parks' mother had gone to bed around 7 pm Monday and was "awoken by the sound of gunfire," said the prosecutor in his complaint.
"The next thing she heard was (Sandra) screaming" I'm getting shot! I am shot! "Speak the prosecutors.
The mayor of Milwaukee, Tom Barrett, said Tuesday that Sandra Barnes was in her room when she was shot, but according to the criminal complaint, her mother found her bleeding in the living room, where her brothers and sisters watched television.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, prosecutors said that the ex-girlfriend of Isaac Barnes was visiting his sister in a house Monday night near Sandra. She said that Barnes had approached her with a black mask and "holding a large AK-47 style gun". He told her: "I was going to attract", but not because she had her children in her parked car.
The criminal complaint did not say whether Parks had already been shot.
Prosecutors also indicted Barnes' knowledge of two counts of possession of a firearm by a criminal, alleging that he had protected two firearms owned by Barnes. However, the acquaintance, 27-year-old Untrell Oden, is not accused of having participated in the shooting.
Barnes and Oden had not yet registered lawyers and had not had a bond hearing.
Police found Barnes hiding a closet in a house where they also located Oden. In this house, police found a gun in the living room trash and another gun in a bedroom, prosecutors said. They say that Oden told the inspector that he had seen Barnes "shoot at an unknown target while they were coming out of the store".
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