By Tinashe Chingarande,
Special to the AFRO
tchingarande@afro.com
and Alexis Taylor,
AFRO News Editor,
ataylor@afro.com
NyKayla Strawder was only 15 years old when she faced the evil of gun violence on the front porch of her West Baltimore home on Aug. 6.
In an instant, a bullet stole the promise of her life and every joy she brought to others.
Behind the trigger— a 9-year-old boy.
“What a bond to break,” said Donyette Mccray, Strawder’s aunt, in a Facebook post.
Mccray added that she will miss car rides with her niece where they would “sing and be silly.”
“I want my Kay back,” she said.
The Baltimore Police Department said that they “spoke to several witnesses at the scene who informed them that the 9-year-old male was playing with a loaded handgun when it accidentally discharged, striking the 15-year-old in the head.”
“The 9-year-old then dropped the gun and fled the location,” police said in a statement released on the BPD Facebook page. “A search and seizure warrant was obtained. Officers gained possession of the gun and ran the serial number. Officers learned that the weapon is registered to an adult female who is a relative of the 9-year-old. That family member serves as an armed security guard.”
Though police called Strawder’s shooting an accident —a loaded gun in the hands of a child— members of the Baltimore community argue otherwise.
An Instagram account run by a self-identified member of Strawder’s family urged people not to listen to reports of an accidental shooting.
“That little boy came with intentions to KILL!” reads an Instagram post by @vividae1, an account tied to a legitimate Charles Village business known as Vividae Hair Collection. “Him and my nephew did not have HISTORY OF BEING FRIENDS! It was a fight between them and he came there to [their] house with bad intentions and my nephew would not come outside!”
“Kayla walked on the porch from returning from the hair store with her best friend only to see A**** the child who murdered her on the porch. Her being a big sister she stuck up for her brother (PROBABLY ) telling him what he’s not going to do. A**** then pulled out the GUN AIMED IT AT HER HEAD AND PULLED THE TRIGGER!!! (sic)”
The AFRO reached out for more details, but a reporter was told the co-owner of the business who made the post was not available for comment.
“These kids are so full of anger and emotions, I wouldn’t put it [past] him,” said London Williams in the comment section of Murder Ink Baltimore, a heavily trafficked Instagram page that reports on murders in the city.
“Working in the school system you see and have to report a lot of things that [go] on with these kids. They’re angry and the parents ignore and laugh at all the warning signs,” said Williams.
Police have said that “in accordance with state law and due to the age of the 9-year-old, he can not be charged with a crime.”
The BPD investigation will continue in conjunction with the State’s Attorney’s Office, and police have said that “potential charges related to the incident are pending.”
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