Two felons charged in girls fatal shooting inside home
Two men who've done time in prison for armed robbery were charged late Wednesday in the Monday night shooting that killed 13-year-old Sandra Parks inside her home.
Isaac D. Barnes, 26, and Untrell Oden, 27, had each been arrested within hours of the shooting in the 2700 block of North 13th Street.
Barnes faces counts of first-degree reckless homicide with a dangerous weapon, endangering safety and being a felon with a gun.
Oden is named in two counts of being a felon with a gun.
According to the criminal complaint:
Bernice Parks told police she had gone to bed early while her two children were watching TV when she was awakened by gunshots about 7:45 p.m. and then heard Sandra saying, "I'm shot, I'm shot."
She saw her daughter bleeding on the floor and called 911. Emergency responders could not save Sandra, who died at the scene. She had been shot once in the upper right flank.
Detectives found four empty casings in the street in front of the house and four bullet holes in the house.
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A police officer responding to the scene noticed someone standing in a nearby gangway who ran as soon as he saw the officer. While looking for that subject, the officer bumped into Barnes' ex-girlfriend, who said he was probably involved in the shooting.
She said she was parked on North 12th Street earlier when Barnes approached her wearing a mask and carrying an assault-style rifle. She said he told her, "Bitch, you lucky the kids are in the car. I was gonna fan you down."
During a house-to-house search, detectives and tactical officers found Barnes and Oden in a house a couple of blocks away on West Locust Street. They also found an AK-47-style pistol in the kitchen garbage can and an AK-47-style rifle in a bedroom.
Oden told detectives he saw Barnes firing at an unknown target as they walked home from the store, and that Barnes had asked to keep his guns at Oden's house.
Investigators test-fired both weapons and determined the shell casings found outside the Parks' home were fired from the AK-47-style handgun.
In April 2011, Oden was sentenced to five years in prison plus five years of extended supervision after pleading guilty to an armed robbery in October 2010.
In September 2010, Barnes was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison and five years of extended supervision after he pleaded guilty to an armed robbery from March 2010. He was also wanted on a warrant on a charge of operating a vehicle without the owner's consent, issued Nov. 2, when he was arrested Monday.
Milwaukee police issued a statement Wednesday thanking the public for its help in finding Oden and Barnes.
Bernice Parks has created a GoFundMe page to raise money for her daughter's memorial services.
Sandra, an eighth-grader at Keefe Avenue School, is at least the fifth Milwaukee child fatally shot inside a home in the last four years by gunfire that erupted outside. Two others were caught in crossfire — one on a school playground, the other in his own yard.
Sandra had written about the violence that plagues many Milwaukee neighborhoods in an award-winning essay commemorating the life of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
"In the city in which I live, I hear and see examples of chaos almost every day. Little children are victims of senseless gun violence," she wrote. "Many people have lost faith in America and its ability to be a living example of Dr. King's dream!"