Shots of Sandra Parks in Milwaukee: A girl who wrote an essay on gun violence was killed by a stray bullet



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Bernice Parks, left, is consoled Tuesday by Jasmine Wells. Parks' 13-year-old daughter, Sandra Parks, was killed by a stray bullet on Monday in her bedroom in Milwaukee. (Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee-Sentinel Journal / AP)

Sandra Parks knew too much about death, even at a young age.

"We are in a state of chaos. In a city where I live, I hear and see examples of chaos almost every day. Little children are victims of senseless gun violence, "wrote Parks.

Two years have passed since the 13-year-old girl wrote about gun violence in her Milwaukee neighborhood. She called her essay "Our Truth" – a sobering reminder: as she said, bad choices and hatred of people have led to so much violence. She wrote about trying to escape the chaos, the "black on black crime" that depressed her. Sometimes she put on her headphones, she wrote, and let the music carry her away.

But she could not escape it.

A few days before Thanksgiving Day this year, Parks was in his bedroom when a bullet fired from a gun outside, targeting anyone in particular, broke a hole in his house and landed in his home. chest, officials said.

"Mom, I got shot" his mother said.

Parks, the girl who called for peace and empathy, passed away Monday night.

"Tragically, his death was caused by someone who just decided to shoot bullets in his house and died. A 13-year-old girl, during Thanksgiving week, a school night, in her bedroom and she passed away, "said Tuesday to the press the Mayor of Milwaukee, Tom Barrett (D).

The investigators did not explain why shots were fired at the youth's home a few kilometers north of downtown Milwaukee. Maybe the shooter wanted to "settle an account, express his anger, try to scare someone," Barrett said.

"All we know," he said, "is that a 13-year-old girl died last night in her room."

Bernice Parks, Sandra's mother, told the police that she had been awakened by gunfire shortly before 8 pm, according to a criminal complaint cited by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She saw her daughter bleeding on the floor.

"She said," Mom, I got shot. Call the police, "said Parks, a Fox affiliate, her voice breaking as she sobbed. "I watched it. She did not cry. She was not screaming. She was so peaceful. … She did not deserve to leave this world like this. "

Police arrested Isaac Barnes, 26, and Untrell Oden, 27. They were walking home from a store when Barnes started shooting at anyone, Oden told the detectives, the Sentinel Newspaper reported.

According to the authorities, Barnes' ex-girlfriend reportedly told a police officer that he was involved in the shooting. She was parked in a street near Sandra's house earlier in the night when Barnes, masked and armed with a rifle, approached her, the Sentinel Journal reported.

"You're lucky that the children are in the car. I was going to have fun, said Barnes, the woman told the police.


Isaac Barnes, 26 (left) and Untrell Oden, 27, were charged with the murder of 13-year-old Sandra Parks (Milwaukee County Jail).

Officers searched the neighborhood and found Barnes and Oden hiding in a house a few blocks away. An AK-47 rifle was in a bedroom and an AK-47 handgun was thrown into a kitchen trash bin. Authorities said four casings found outside Sandra's house had been fired by the handgun, the Sentinel Journal reported.

Barnes is accused of first-degree reckless homicide with a dangerous weapon and endangering safety. He and Oden, two convicted criminals, are also charged with unlawful possession of a firearm.

In 2016, the Milwaukee Public Schools ran a writing contest on Martin Luther King Jr. Sandra, a sixth-year student, won third place. She chose to write about gun violence because the world had not kept her dreams alive, she said. interview with Wisconsin Public Radio.

"The world we are in now is like, for example, everything you hear about, it's someone who dies and someone who gets shot, and people do not just think to the father, son, granddaughter or grandson you just killed, Sandra said.

The teenager, who was in eighth grade when she passed away, had hoped to become a college writer, wrote her mother in a GoFundMe page created to help the family pay for memorial services. He raised more than $ 10,000 on Thursday morning.

The Washington Post was unable to travel to Bernice Parks on Thursday.

"I have never felt so lost," she wrote on Facebook. "My chest looks like a [boulder] breaks on my heart. I need peace. I lost my love. "

S addressing reporters this week, the mother of three could barely catch her breath sobbing and burying her face in the chest of a loved one.

"She was everything that this world was not. … she suffered a lot and every time she was down, my baby was getting up. … She always got up. … She was my angel from the time she was in my belly when she came out. She will always be my angel, "said Parks.

On Tuesday, neighbors, friends and relatives gathered for a vigil of Sandra's defense. Bernice Parks standing in front of reporters, wrapped in a pale pink blanket, with a picture of her daughter's face pinned to her jacket. A man worn the plate Sandra won for her test two years ago.

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