Grandfather: Girl, 6, struck by gunfire while riding in car in Minneapolis dies
Aniya Allen, the 6-year-old girl shot in the head Monday amid surging gunfire in Minneapolis, has died, her grandfather said in a social media post Wednesday afternoon.
"These maggots killed my 6 year old granddaughter here in mpls after all I tried to do to help bring love compassion and Peace!" activist K.G. Wilson posted to Facebook. "I just went from sad to mad. Right now all I want to know is who did this?"
Police and officials at HCMC, where she is hospitalized, have not confirmed Aniya's death or whether she remains on life support.
After a day of shopping and swimming, Allen was riding in a car her mother was driving through the intersection of N. 36th and Penn avenues when they drove into what police believe was a shootout between rival gangs. Allen was taken to HCMC, where family and supporters, including Wilson, kept vigil.
Allen was the third young Minneapolis child shot in a span of two weeks in a city already reeling from rising violent crime, the pandemic and the lingering effects of George Floyd's killing in police custody last spring.
On April 30, Ladavionne Garrett Jr., 10, was riding in a car with his mother and father when a gunman or gunmen opened fire. One of the bullets pierced the trunk and struck Ladavionne in the head as he was eating from a can of Pringles, officials said. They said the boy was put into a medically induced coma at North Memorial Health Hospital, where doctors were forced to remove a portion of his skull to relieve swelling on the brain.
On Saturday, 9-year-old Trinity Ottoson-Smith was at a friend's house jumping on a trampoline when a car pulled into the alley and someone inside fired several shots at a nearby house, striking her in the head. Repeated vigils for both children have continued outside North Memorial, where they continue to fight for their lives.
So far this year, the city's 27 homicides are nearly double what they were at this point in 2020, and 187 people have been wounded or killed in shootings — a tally the city didn't reach until June 21 in 2020, according to Police Department crime statistics. More worryingly, 22 children have been struck by gunfire, half of them shot since March 28, the statistics show.
Online fundraisers are ongoing to help with medical expenses for Allen, Garrett and Ottoson-Smith
Libor Jany • 612-673-4064
