Girl, 4, Killed in Drive-By:
Ty Milburn and Melissa McCrady
MILWAUKEE - Her family called her "Juicy" because she loved juice so much. Four-year-old Jasmine Owens was shot dead Monday night while she was jumping rope with her cousins.
The drive-by shooting took place on the street near Jasmine's home in the 2800 block of N. 29th St.
The girl was shot once in the head. Paramedics rushed her to Children's Hospital, where she was pronounced dead around 9 p.m.
A 26-year-old man was also shot in the leg during the same incident. He is in police custody. He received a non life-threatening wound. Police would not say whether the 26-year-old was the intended target.
One woman said she was standing near the little girl when shots rang out. The woman thought it was firecrackers until someone yelled, "Run!"
Police did not get a good description of the vehicle that the shots came from. Witnesses said a dark blue or black SUV fled north on 29th St. after the shooting.
Alicia Owens said tearfully that she believes someone must have a good description of the suspect or suspects that killed her daughter and the vehicle because so many people were around at the time.
"There's not a whole lot you can do about drive throughs," said frustrated neighbor Janet Trigs. "Just got to be vigilant, know your neighborhood... have a representative from the community. Know your police.. and you're just a phone call away."
Trigs said if anything good can come of the shooting; it's that police will now patrol the area more heavily.
"Hopefully, out of this here, I feel now I've got the safest neighborhood on the block 'cause police (are) going to keep it hot for awhile," she said.
Jasmine's murder came a few hours before Milwaukee Police Chief Nan Hegerty announced her "Neighborhood Safety Initiative."
Starting Sunday, May 20, Milwaukee police officers will place an unspecified number of uniformed officers in the city's most violent neighborhoods until Sept. 8.
Friends of Jasmine Owens are happy with extra police patrol, but would rather see money and time spent on getting guns off our streets. But they say it's too late to save Jasmine's life.
"She didn't come back to me! She didn't come back to me..." Alicia Owens sobbed while hugging a family friend.
The woman said she ran around the back of a house. When she came back, she said the girl was on the ground bleeding.
"I want my baby back," Alicia Owens, the victim's mother, sobbed Tuesday morning. "Whoever killed my baby, please turn himself in. My baby... my baby was only 4-years-old. She didn't do nothing to nobody.
"She loved juices and Popsicles," she continued. "She is the sweetest thing."
Alicia Owens was not home at the time of the shooting, but said her daughter was outside, playing care free, with lots of relatives around watching her.
"Her aunties, her grandmama, everybody was sitting here on the porch," she said. "She was out here playing, her little cousins and them, she was out here playing. She loved outside. She loved jumping rope... I just bought her a rope yesterday, she was out here jumping rope."
