Mom Watched Daughter, 13, Die, Now Asking For Memorial Help

MILWAUKEE, WI -- The mother of a 13-year-old girl who was shot and killed as she sat watching television in her Milwaukee home has reached out to the community to help her fund memorial services.

In a Gofundme page, mother Bernice Parks is asking for the community to give what they can. "My daughter Sanda Parks left me last night due to senseless act of violence. Sandra was shot while at home. The shooter shot through the house November 19, 2018.She was a eight grader and had hope for going to college to be writer. She was just a innocent child," she wrote. This situation has been very hard on me as a mother, family and friends. I'm asking the community to help my family out with the memorial services. Give what ever you can. All is appreciated."

The shooting took place in one of Milwaukee's poorest neighborhoods - and just blocks from Milwaukee North Division High School - Milwaukee's most poorly-performing school according to the State Department of Public Instruction.

The Shooting

Milwaukee police responded to the 2700 block of N. 13th St. on the night of Nov. 19 on a report of a shooting. According to police, officers walked up the steps of the two-story bungalow to talk with Bernice Parks, the mother of 13-year-old Sandra.

Bernice Parks told police that she went to bed at 7 p.m. that night. Sandra and another girl were up watching television. At 7:45 p.m. Bernice said she was woken to the sounds of gunshots, and Sandra yelling "I'm shot! I'm shot!" police said.

As Bernice saw her daughter on the living room floor bleeding from gunshot wounds, Bernice called 911. Police accounts say that first responders did everything they could to save her life, however they were too late. Sandra was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Search

As officers responded to the shooting, they reported seeing a man run from the sight of them about a block west on N. 13th Street. According to police, officers went yard-to-yard in the neighborhood, scaling fences and searching around boarded-up buildings in search of the man.

As they searched, police said they ran into Barnes' ex-girlfriend. According to police, the woman said Barnes approached her vehicle wearing a mask and holding a large AK-47-style firearm earlier that evening. Their search led them to an apartment on the 1300 block of W. Locust Street.

According to police, when officers searched the apartment they found Barnes hiding in a closet. Police said they also found Oden in the same apartment. Officers said they found an AK-47 semiautomatic rifle from a bedroom and an AK-47 pistol from a garbage can in the living room. According to police, Barnes had asked Oden about holding onto his guns.

Police said they employed a firearms technician to test whether the bullets from Barnes' AK-47 matched up with the bullets found at the scene. They came back a match, according to reports.

Essay About Gun Violence

At the time she was shot and killed, Sandra Parks was in eighth grade at Keefe Avenue School. When she was in sixth grade, she wrote an essay about gun violence in Milwaukee, and won place in the contest.

In an essay titled "Our Truth," Parks wrote: " We are in a state of chaos. In the city in which I live, I hear and see examples of chaos almost everyday. Little children are victims of senseless gun violence. There is too much black on black crime. As an African-American, that makes me feel depressed. May people have lost faith in America and its ability to be a living example of Dr. King's dream!," she wrote in the essay. "We need to be empathetic and try to walk in each other's shoes. ... We shall overcome, when we love ourselves and the people around us. Then, we become our brothers keeper."

In January 2017, Parks was invited to speak on Wisconsin Public Radio about the essay. She wrote about violence because "all you hear about is somebody dying or somebody getting shot and people do not just think about whose father or son or granddaughter or grandson who it was that was just killed."

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett responded to the incident, citing "the insanity" of gun violence in the city. "Sandra Parks ... went into her bedroom. She never came out alive," Barrett said at a news conference. "Tragically, her death was caused by someone who just decided they were going to shoot bullets into her house and she's dead."

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