CRIME / COURTS

Baby's grandmother: 'Why do we have to kill?'

Matthew Glowicki
The Courier-Journal

Twyman Reed loves the Shawnee neighborhood where he's lived for more than 40 years, but like other residents, he's watched it become a "hot spot" of activity, with growing signs of trouble.

In August alone, Louisville Metro Police made 74 calls to the area, including on Wednesday night in the 100block of South 37th Street, where 1-year-old Ne'riah Miller was shot and killed.

"People can't keep turning a blind eye to what's going on," Reed said. "Nobody wants to lose a loved one, but to lose a child? Jesus. It's senseless."

Ne'riah and her mother, 21-year-old Cierra Twyman, were shot by an unidentified gunman outside their home Wednesday night. Police originally thought it was a drive-by shooting but later said the gunman was on foot.

The child was transported to Kosair Children's Hospital Wednesday evening where she was pronounced dead at 6:46 p.m. from a single gunshot wound to her torso, said Jefferson County Deputy Coroner Larry Carroll.

Cierra Twyman was in stable condition with non-life threatening injuries at University of Louisville Hospital on Thursday as family members and neighborhood activists gathered at the shooting site to call for change.

"We're supposed to be brothers and sisters. We're supposed to love one another," said Ne'riah's great-grandmother, Sherrie Miller, who described the toddler as a happy girl who loved to dance. "Why do we have to kill?"

Miller said she believes her great-granddaughter and her mother were not the intended targets and that at least six men were involved in the shooting. Relaying information witnesses have told her, Miller said, one man ran up to the porch where the victims were sitting and fired.

Police would not comment on specifics and said it was an ongoing investigation.

The fatal shooting Wednesday brings the total number of homicides this year to 35, according to LMPD records.

Police spokesman Dwight Mitchell said officers who patrol the neighborhood are re-evaluating personnel placement, as is normal after shootings, but have not yet determined if patrols will be adjusted or additional officers added.

"It's a very sad day for the city," said Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, who Thursday evening visited the scene and met with family members. "There's no conceivable, acceptable reason for this happening in our community."

Fischer, other leaders and family members called on those who might know what happened to come forward and for the community to unite to stop the violence.

Minister Jerald Muhammad of the Louisville Nation of Islam denounced the fatal shooting Thursday morning.

"We have a moral issue in our community," Muhammad said — one that cannot be solved by the city or police alone, he added.

"No matter what facts come out in this particular case ... nothing justifies the shooting of a toddler," he said.

Thursday evening, well over 50 people gathered at the shooting site to support the victims' family and call on the community to work together to find the killer and prevent violence.

"My community is sick," said Ray Barker, a member of Man Up, a group that seeks to reduce violence in the community. "If you don't think we're sick, look at what happened last night."

Pastor Vincent James of Elim Baptist Church on Greenwood Avenue said he sees hope for the future if the community can lay aside its differences.

"We're not going to accept it any longer," James said of crime in the area. "I know the streets know what happen, and the streets will talk. And we need to come together to make sure that happens."

Tijuana Twyman, Cierra Twyman's mother, said at the evening gathering that her daugher is slowly recovering and trying to grasp she no longer has her only child.

"It's sad this had to go on to bring the community together," she said. "This baby, she's never gonna come back. She's never gonna come back."

Reporter Matthew Glowicki can be reached at (502) 582-4989. Follow him on Twitter at @MattGlo.