Alaysha Carradine Murdered: Gunman Kill 8-Year-Old During Sleepover at Friend's House
An eight-year-old, Alaysha Carradine, has shockingly been murdered while at a sleepover on Wednesday night. The young girl was killed after she answered the door to the apartment, only for gunmen to storm in and shoot her dead, as well as injuring two other young children aged seven and four.
"This is about as low as you can possibly get," Oakland Police Chief Sean Whent told NBC. "What kind of human being shoots a little girl?"
Carradine was killed instantly; her 7-year-old friend, and the friend's 4-year-old brother were also struck. However, they are expected to survive, as is the 63-year-old grandmother who was watching the children at the time. She was also shot but is in stable condition.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
According to reports, the shooting took place around 11:15 p.m. Wednesday evening at the home in California. Khamel Hardin, 22, was also in the apartment but was upstairs and was uninjured in the attack.
"It was like a bomb, an explosion, just going off so quick," Hardin told the San Francisco Chronicle. When asked if he had any idea as to why someone would open fire in the home, Hardin responded, "That's what I don't know. I don't need to know people like that."
"It could have been a mistaken house, you know, any kind of thing," Alaysha's stepfather, Jesse Fowler, said. "I just want to know why you would shoot up a houseful of kids. Where do you get the satisfaction in that?"
The Oakland community has been shaken by the shooting and is mourning the loss of the little girl nicknamed Ladybug. According to Fowler, she loved the Disney Channel and was spending the night with her friend so the two could go to a modeling competition the next day.
"She was a breath of fresh air, one of the most smart, fun-loving, spunky kids you'd ever meet," Fowler said. "Somebody that loves to help people, somebody that everybody loved, and everybody loved to be around her."
He had to break the news to Alaysha's mother, Chiquita Carradine, and friends say she has been left devastated by the tragic killing. The community has offered its full support to the grieving mother, and police have offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest of the suspects.
Anyone with information is encouraged to call the Oakland police at (510) 238-3821 or an anonymous tip line at (510) 773-2508.
