Reward raised
Bullets fired into home killed 5-year-old girl
The mother of Laylah Petersen, the 5-year-old girl killed when gunfire tore through a Milwaukee home in November, announces that the reward in the case is now $35,000.
KIDS, GUNS AND HOW WE CAN STOP THE VIOLENCE
Six months ago, bullets ripped through a house on Milwaukee’s northwest side and killed 5-yearold Laylah Petersen while she was sitting on her grandfather’s lap.
On Wednesday, her mother stood on the front lawn of the same house where her daughter was shot and announced a new reward donation, bringing the total reward to $35,000. She pleaded for anyone with information to come forward.
“I’ve been a young girl, a teenager,” Ashley Fogl said. “I’ve grown to become a woman and a mother. But my Laylah will not. Who did this? Who did this to my beautiful addition to this world? Who took her out of it?”
She was joined by numerous family members and Milwaukee police officials, including the first-responding officers to Laylah’s shooting, the detectives working the case and Chief Edward Flynn.
“Me and Laylah’s entire family need to know why and what happened on that disgraceful night,” Fogl said.
The Milwaukee Police Department has devoted “significant resources” to the case, chasing down “literally hundreds of leads” and conducting dozens and dozens of interviews, Flynn said.
“We’ve gone to jails and prisons to talk to people who thought they had something to tell us about this case and we’ve run down telephone tips, but sadly . . . we have not made significant progress,” Flynn said.
Attorney Michael Hupy offered the new $25,000 reward, which was combined with $5,000 rewards offered from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and a local group called Citizens for Urban Justice. Clear Channel Outdoor also donated digital billboards to display Laylah’s photo and the reward information.
Laylah was killed Nov. 6 at her grandparents’ home near N. 58th St. and W. Fairmount Ave. In interviews earlier this year, investigators said they know 12 bullets were fired into the home, but they don’t know why. Flynn said none of the evidence has indicated there was any “objective reason to target this house or this family.”
Two guns were used, likely by two suspects, and one has been linked through shell casings to several earlier incidents in Milwaukee, most of which occurred in 2014, authorities have said.
On Wednesday, family spokesman the Rev. Richard Schwoegler III appealed to the suspects’ families.
“We’re not just going to lock these people up and throw away the key,” Schwoegler said. “Yes, there’s got to be justice; yes, there’s got to be consequence to our actions, but we’re going to wrap around those people and we’re also going to try to bring peace and reconciliation.”
Laylah symbolizes the best and worst of Milwaukee, Flynn said.
“She stands for good things about Milwaukee: innocence, a safe place to raise children, a place of opportunity,” Flynn said. “But she also stands for the tragedy of Milwaukee — that there’s too much violence, too many guns in the hands of criminals, too much bloodshed, too many lives lost, too many opportunities never realized.”
When people come forward to help solve this case, it will not only bring justice to Layah’s family, Flynn said.
“We’re putting a down payment on all the other families out there who have lost their Laylahs, who still don’t have justice that they deserve and still don’t have the hope that this violence will stop anytime soon,” he said.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Milwaukee police at (414) 935-7360. The $35,000 reward will go to the first person to provide authorities with information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person who fired the shot that killed Laylah Petersen.