MEMPHIS, Tenn. — WREG investigators are learning new information about a young woman who police say was sexually assaulted and killed in her Hickory Hill apartment.
It happened on July 9, 2024, around 3 in the morning.
Aaliyah Kyles was in her apartment on Bald Eagle Drive when someone reportedly climbed through her broken window.
Investigators say neighbors reported gunfire and someone in all-black bolting from Kyles’ apartment.
A 17-year-old was arrested and could be tried as an adult after he confessed to sexually assaulting and fatally shooting her.
Aaliyah Kyles was only 19-years-old.
WREG has now learned the victim’s parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a company out of New Jersey that owns both the Boulevard, where Kyles lived, and Parkway Apartments.
The apartment was Kyles’ first. She had just graduated and was working.
The properties are next door to each other and, according to court records, “share a single outer perimeter fence” and “are NOT separated by any form.”
Kyles’ parents are also suing the property manager and the security company they employed at the time of their daughter’s death.
“We’re learning he (the suspect) biked onto the property. He had easy access to the property and broke into her home,” said attorney Esperanza King, who is representing Kyles’ parents. “This apartment complex seems to be the epicenter of crime in the Hickory Hill area.”
King told WREG the properties have a history of concern, and the complaint lists several problems such as a “complete lack of security measures, a lack of adequate gates and fences, a failure to provide and/or maintain security cameras and strangers in and around the property.”
Problems, King says, violate basic tenant rights outlined in the state law.
King states that between July 2019 and July 2024, they’ve found a large stack of incident reports, including five homicides, 85 aggravated assaults, 224 assaults, 54 burglaries or break-ins and 28 weapon violations.
According to the city’s public safety map, within a quarter-mile radius of the apartments during the same time, there were more than 2,000 crimes reported.
Add another 300 police reports to that pile since then, including three homicides, 18 aggravated assaults and six robberies.
“We want to make sure that places that are ridden with crime that it is addressed and that it does not continue to grow,” King said.
WREG contacted the apartment complexes and security company through the contact options on their websites, but haven’t had any luck.
The property management company told us no comment.
We also asked the district attorney’s office if they are looking into the properties and if they could be declared a nuisance, but they said they are “not on their radar just yet.”
We’ve been told that Kyles’ parents are full of emotion after the suspect’s arrest and are reliving it all again.
Now, they’re left with even more questions.
While speaking with WREG after their daughter’s death, they described her as loving, outspoken and happy-go-lucky.
They added that she was the “glue to their family” and “their everything.”
Their attorney now says based on what they’ve discovered, her death could have been prevented.
She said it’s their mission to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“This is not the only apartment complex in Memphis that doesn’t seem to secure their property, provide security to their tenants and has high rates of crime,” King said. “You have to provide some sort of security.”
Kyles’ parents are asking for $10 million in compensatory damages and $20 million in punitive damages.
WREG has also learned that the apartments receive a PILOT, which is a break on their taxes.
Investigators are continuing to dig to find out more.