Stray Bullet Kills 13-Year-Old Girl Who Wrote An Award-Winning Essay About Gun Violence

Two years ago, Sandra Parks, 13, wrote an award-winning essay about the constant shootings in her hometown of Milwaukee and elsewhere, and the emotional toll they have on young people like her.

Two years after she won an award for her essay, bullets shattered Sandra’s bedroom window as she watched television on Monday night. The stray bullet fired from outside her home killed her instantly.

“She took it like a soldier. She just walked in the room and said, ‘Mama, I’m shot’. The bullet wasn’t even for her.”  her sister, Tatiana Ingram said.

Late Parks, who was in eighth grade at Keefe Avenue School, wrote the essay in 2016, when she was in sixth grade. The essay won third place in the contest.

“Little children are victims of senseless gun violence. I sit back and I have to escape from what I see and hear every day. When I do; I come to the same conclusion; we are in a state of chaos.

Our first truth is that we must start caring about each other. We need to be empathetic and try to walk in each other’s shoes. We shall overcome, when we love ourselves and the people around us. Then, we become our brothers keeper” she wrote.