Taliyah Frazier was killed when gunmen fired on the car she was driving. (Nashville Metropolitan Police Department crime scene photo; inset photo of Taliyah from her obituary)
A 4-year-old girl in the back of a car was shot and killed and her 2-year-old brother was grazed in the head when two men got out of their car and fired more than 20 bullets into the car at the children were at an intersection in Nashville, Tennessee, in what detectives say was a “non-random and targeted” shooting.
Taliyah Frazier was in a Chevrolet Malibu on Tuesday night when the car came under fire while stopped at a red light, police said. She was hit on the head. Her 2-year-old brother suffered a non-critical abrasion to the head. His twin brother was not injured, officials said.
The unidentified 22-year-old driver, the father of the twins, suffered injuries to his arm and managed to drive to a nearby car park, where police and paramedics were summoned. Taliyah died the following day.
Terry Dickson, Taliyah’s great-grandfather, told WKRN Nashville he was devastated.
“Taliyah was like our daughter. Taliyah lived with us. She was here weekdays and weeknights,” Dickson said, the station reported. “He was a happy baby, who loved everyone.”
In a news release Wednesday, police said two men in a car next to the Malibu at a red light got out and fired multiple shots in “a non-random aimed fire.” No arrests were made and no description of the gunmen was available. The motive was also unclear.
As the shots were fired, the driver of the Malibu sped up and drove about three miles to a Family Dollar store where the children’s mother works.
A witness said WKRN was deeply shaken.
“I could tell she was really, really hurt because the back of her shirt was soaked in blood,” the witness said, the station reported. “I’ve never seen anything like it. I was so shaken up. I’ve been to crime scenes but never with babies involved. I was praying so hard for her last night that I just couldn’t believe the evil was that big. It was just a pure act of evil.
“Babies. Babies. They were babies.
Another witness told WSMV4 from Nashville that she and her boyfriend were in the back of a Lyft at a red light when shots rang out and shrapnel hit their car.
“I was scared to look,” the witness told the station. “My boyfriend and I slumped in our seats so we wouldn’t be near the windows. Our Lyft driver immediately accelerated Douglas to get away, and we heard continuous gunfire throughout Meridian.
In the interview with the news station, Dickson addressed the gunmen directly.
“I was hoping they would finally own this because they had to, not me,” he told the network. “I forgive you. I can’t have hurtful feelings towards you. It’s up to you now to forgive yourself.
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