GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Police are asking for the public’s help in tracking down several potential witnesses to a murder. La'Kyijah Williams, 15, was shot and killed in downtown Grand Rapids on Saturday, May 18 while riding her scooter.
In the time since she was killed, nobody has been arrested or publicly named as a suspect.
It happened in between two structures downtown: a parking garage and a building near Studio Park, 180 Ottawa Ave. SW.
On Monday, GRPD Chief Eric Winstrom shared surveillance video with members of the media.
"I'm asking for the full city to stand up, help us and do the right thing,” Chief Winstrom said Monday.
He played a very short video, approximately six seconds long, showing five young people who were in the area of the murder on the evening of May 18.
Winstrom estimates the kids to be as young as 12 years old.
In the clip, five people can be seen walking past a first-floor security camera near 120 Ottawa, about a block from GRPD’s downtown station.
The video was captured immediately after the murder at 11:36 p.m.
"I still don't think La'Kyijah was the intended target,” he explained Monday.
He says she was shot from far away, calling her murder “the way a coward would kill someone.”
He is hopeful that the parents or guardians of the young people seen in the surveillance video will bring their children in to speak with detectives immediately.
Winstrom says the kids were “absolutely within feet of the murder, saw what happened, saw who pulled the trigger.”
“We need the adults in Grand Rapids, the parents, teachers, to help us to identify these individuals, bring these individuals to the police station, and talk to us," Winstrom adds.
He explained that he will have detectives at the station ready to conduct interviews by Monday evening.
Winstrom made it clear that the five young people in the surveillance video are not suspects in the shooting.
“She was a daughter, a sister,” he said. "La'Kyijah had a lot of people who loved her… They deserve justice."
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Chief Winstrom explained that investigators are not sure what the kids’ relationship to La’Kyijah is. He said they could “possibly be friends” with the 15 year old.
Anyone with information about the deadly shooting, or the identities of the five young people in the surveillance video, are asked to contact GRPD at (616) 456-3400.
Anonymous information can also be submitted through Silent Observer.
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