A 13-year-old girl who wrote an essay on gun violence is shot in her room



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A 13-year-old girl who wrote an inspirational essay on gun violence was killed after being hit by a stray bullet.

Sandra Parks was shot dead last Thursday while she was sitting in her bedroom in Milwaukee.

Her mother, Bernice Parks, was awakened by the sound of gunfire around 7 pm and rushed to her daughter to find her bleeding.

Prosecutors said: "Then she heard (Sandra) scream," I got shot! I got shot!

Sandra Parks is dead at home (Photo: Family Parks)

Isaac Barnes, 26, was arrested for reckless homicide in the first degree because of the shooting and is also the subject of several other charges.

Prosecutors said he was trying to shoot his former girlfriend, who was visiting his sister living in the neighborhood, with an "AK-47" type gun.

Untrell Oden, 27, has also been arrested and faces two counts of possession of a firearm by a criminal.

He is accused of helping Barnes hide his weapons.

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Click to enlarge: Sandra Parks wrote this essay on gun violence (Photo: Facebook)
Bernice Parks, left, is comforted by Jasmine Wells, center, the godmother of Sandra Parks (Photo: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Sandra Parks wanted to end gun violence (Photo: Facebook)

Ms. Parks told Pix 11, "My baby was not violent. My baby did not like the violence.

"It was a star who was trying to go out, she did not know how / never to forget my baby."

Sandra's essay, which ranked third in a 2016 Martin Luther King School District competition, showed her desire for gun violence to end where she lived.

She wrote, "We are going to win, we are lost in lies about who we are. Who have we become?

"We must rewrite our history so that faith and hope for a better future are not just in us. But we believe it and put it into action.

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Isaac Barnes, 26, was arrested for first degree recklessness (photo: Milwaukee Police Department)
Untrell Oden faces two counts of possession of a firearm by a criminal (Photo: Milwaukee Police Department)

Sandra added, "Sometimes I sit and I have to escape what I see and hear every day.

"When I do it, I reach the same conclusion … we are in a state of chaos."

Her family remembered Sandra last night in her neighborhood.

Barnes could be jailed for up to 60 years if convicted.

He and Oden are still in detention and have not had a bail hearing yet.

Ms. Parks opened a crowdfunding page to raise funds for a memorial service.

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