WEST MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A child playing in her front yard was shot during a drive-by shooting. And the gunmen are still on the run.
Jarvis Hopkins is thankful his daughter is going to be okay.
West Memphis Police say, in August 2018, 5-year-old Dakayla Anderson was playing in the front yard of her family’s home on North 18th Street when two men drove by and opened fire.
“They say she’s doing a lot better. But I’m glad it wasn’t worse than it was,” Hopkins said.
“Dakayla was out there talking to her grandmom, and a guy came by in a car and another guy ran across their yard,” the girl’s aunt, Zadie Brown, said.
That’s when witnesses say the gunmen started shooting.
Neighbors say Dakayla was not the intended target but got caught in the crossfire. One of the bullets hit her in the leg.
Another bullet shattered Alindia McVay’s storm door. “They shouldn’t be shooting in nobody else’s yard. I understand they was trying to shoot somebody else. But they shot a 5-year-old,” she said.
Investigators say the gunmen need to be off the street before anyone else gets hurt.
“If they’re willing to shoot at someone that is just walking by and you got kids outside playing in their yard, that makes me question what have they done before and what they’re going to do in the future,” Detective Lauryn Dixon with the West Memphis Police Department said.
Witnesses say the gunmen were last seen driving a blue family-style car with the back window possibly busted out.
“We are not going to stop looking for these people. We’re going to keep working until we find something,” Detective Dixon said.
If you know who shot 5-year-old Dakayla Johnson, you are asked to call West Memphis Police at (870)-732-7555. All calls are confidential.