GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Family has identified 15-year-old La'Kyijah Williams as the teen shot and killed in downtown Grand Rapids on Saturday.
The shooting happened in between two structures, a parking garage and a building, near Studio Park.
Below is a photo provided by Lamia Foster, La'Kyijah's sister. It shows La'Kyijah with her nephew.
That same photo was printed on a shirt that Lamia now wears to remember her sister.
Fond memories are all Lamia has to look back on.
“My favorite memory is when I showed her my birth video, and she just started gagging. Like just gagging. Would not stop gagging. She came to the hospital with my baby. She would not hold my baby because she was like, ‘it’s too small, it’s too small,” Foster said.
Grand Rapids Police are investigating the incident.
La'Kyijah's family says the shooting, to them, could not appear to be more random. She was with a group of friends downtown.
“It could have been a group they were shooting at. It could have been La’Kyijah on her own. It could have been. It could have been something past La’Kyijah. I’m not sure," Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom said.
Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom says hundreds of people were out downtown on Saturday.
"That’s one of the dangers of gunfire. Especially when there’s gunfire downtown. When there’s so many people out. One of the things I say a lot is how dangerous handguns are, and the distance a bullet can travel and be deadly. The fear that an innocent child will get struck by a bullet. And whether she was the intended target or not,..a 15-year-old girl is dead,” Winstrom said.
La'Kyijah's sister Dayveiannah London says the reality that her sister is gone hasn't sunk in yet. Dayveiannah recently moved to Kentucky, but came back to Grand Rapids first thing after hearing what happened to her sister.
“I haven’t been around as much. So it’s almost not believable. You don’t believe it until you actually see the person. Still, it feels like she’s going to walk through the door at any time,” Dayveiannah London said.
La'Kyijah loved basketball.
“Every sport. Every sport," Lamia said.
“She was happy she had nephews. She couldn’t wait to get them in sports,” Dayveiannah said.
La'Kyijah was shot in the head.
“This was a cowardly act from an individual, who fired from a distance," Winstrom said.
Family is calling for justice. Police are asking anyone with information to contact Silent Observer. They know there were hundreds of witnesses.
“I think that the fact that it happened in downtown Grand Rapids, the whole city owns it,” Winstrom said.
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