'North Side: Speak up,' grieving grandmother pleads for answers in shootings of children

Ten-year-old Ladavionne Garrett Jr. would normally have been in church Sunday morning.

Instead, he was in critical condition, his grandmother said, fighting for his life 60 days after he was one of three children shot in the head in north Minneapolis in the span of two weeks this spring.

No arrests have been made or suspects identified in any of the cases.

"If we don't get no answers, we gonna have a deadly summer of babies," said Sharrie Jennings, 45, Ladavionne's grandmother and North Side resident. "There should be no reason that a child can't go outside and jump rope or hopscotch or ride their bike around the block or even ride in the car with their parents to Dairy Queen or McDonald's. To have to worry about gunshots in broad daylight? We got to do better."

Of the three children who were shot, Trinity Ottoson-Smith, 9, and Aniya Allen, 6, died.

Allen died May 19 at North Memorial Health Hospital two days after she was shot as her mother drove through the intersection of N. 36th and Penn avenues. Ottoson-Smith was jumping on a trampoline May 15 at a friend's house in the Jordan neighborhood when a car pulled into the alley and someone inside fired several shots at a nearby house. She died May 27 at North Memorial.

Ladavionne was shot April 30 while riding in a vehicle with his parents in the 3400 block of N. Morgan Avenue. A bullet pierced the trunk and struck Ladavionne as he was eating from a can of Pringles, officials said. His parents rushed him to North Memorial, where he remains.

The children's families have held several vigils outside North Memorial and City Hall, pleading with anyone with information to come forward. In late May, relatives joined officials to announce a $30,000 reward for information leading to an arrest or conviction.

On Sunday, Jennings was flanked by Lisa Clemons, a former Minneapolis police officer and founder of the gun violence prevention nonprofit A Mother's Love Initiative, and police spokesman John Elder at a news conference outside City Hall.

She begged North Side residents to speak up and called on protesters of police violence to apply equal pressure to the children's' cases. She said the "code of silence" shouldn't apply to children such as her grandson, who is an honor-roll, straight-A student who "used to cry if he had to miss school."

"None of these kids deserved this. They had bullets to their heads. How are y'all so comfortable with not speaking up, saying something?" Jennings said, adding that neighbors were outside nearby when her grandson was shot. "This is ridiculous.

"Come on, Minneapolis, North Side, speak up, say something. This was wrong. These babies got shot in the head."

Elder said the reward is now at $35,000, thanks to donations from downtown businesses. He emphasized that the tip line, Crime Stoppers of Minnesota, 1-800-222-8477, is anonymous and added that the department is working on a billboard for the three cases to generate more tips.

Jennings said she wants to see the community demand justice for the children because they deserve answers.

"We march and we protest when the police do something ... but now where [is] everybody at? Because at the end of the day, these families [are] still hurting, these families still don't have answers," she said. "So I think we should be out here every day, getting answers."

Kim Hyatt • 612-673-4751