Milwaukee police are investigating a shooting that killed a young girl and seriously injured another this past weekend.
On Oct. 2, near N. Sherman Blvd. and W. Burleigh St., the sisters were sitting in the back seat of a car when they were shot. Eleven-year-old Ta'Niyla Parker died. Her five-year-old sister was seriously injured.
At a press conference on Monday, Mayor Tom Barrett said he was at a loss for words.
“I simply do not understand how an individual could fire a gun into a vehicle next to his own or her own, kill a little girl and seriously injure her sister,” Barrett said. “I think that that’s something our community has to ask itself. Who are we as a community when an individual decides that they’re just going to fire a gun into a vehicle next to them?”
Barrett said gun violence has increased in Milwaukee this past year. He wants to invest more money into the city's police department and work with community leaders to help reduce gun violence. But he said the responsibility also falls on community members to make a difference.
“We have to do better and I know we can do better,” Barrett said. “It is going to take the efforts of many, many, many people in this community, but I am committed as (are) those individuals who work in our office of violence prevention, those individuals who work in the police department, to do what we can to end these senseless shootings.”
Milwaukee Police are still looking for the suspect involved in the shooting.
