MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Memphis Police Department confirmed Saturday that 18-year-old Nicholas Millican and 17-year-old Audrea Reed were the victims of Friday’s double shooting in Berclair.
The pair was gunned down while walking together with friends on Macon Road near Kingsbury High School.
Friends said Millican was a recent graduate from Kingsbury High School, and Reed was a current student. He and Reed were getting ready to go to a pep rally and had gone to a Macon Road store to get something when the shooting happened, according to family members.
Reed fought for her life until she died in the hospital Saturday morning.
“You took a part of my heart when you killed my sister, and I can’t get that back,” Reed’s half-sister, Dan’iqua Reed, said. “I can’t get that back, and people don’t know how hard that hurts.”
She said she made it to the hospital just in time to watch her take her last breath.
“When I walked in there, all I saw was blood everywhere,” Dan’iqua Reed said. “All I saw was blood, all I saw was my sister’s stomach. I couldn’t breathe. It felt like my heart had been ripped out of my chest… It felt like someone had their hand on my heart, on my soul, on my mind and my lungs, and it felt like their grip kept getting tighter.”
The suspect was captured on a nearby surveillance camera. Police say he followed the group on his bike as they were walking down the street.
According to investigators, Millican intervened when that man tried to talk to one of the girls, and that’s when the suspect pulled a gun from his backpack and started shooting.
Millican was killed and Reed was shot in the side and taken to the hospital in critical condition.
Dan’iqua Reed said doctors had to revive her sister seven times before her mother finally made the decision to pull her off life-support.
“I saw her chest rise and fall for the last time and it broke my heart,” she said.
Even though police have surveillance images of her sister’s killer, he’s still out there, and Dan’iqua Reed can’t get the question of ‘why’ out of her mind.
“I want answers,” she said. “My sister is gone and no one wants to give me answers.”
She can only hope someone recognizes the man in the surveillance images and comes forward.
“You can’t understand my pain unless someone takes your sister to gun violence and you sit there and watch her take her last breath,” Dan’iqua Reed said. “You can’t understand that. It hurts.”
Brad Kornegay, Character Coach with Kingsbury High School football team, said in a statement “Nicholas played for us for several years and was loved by all. Once you are part of the football family you are always part of the family.”
He goes on to say that while he doesn’t understand why the “senseless” violence is taking place, the community still needs to come together. “We can either be part of the solution or part of the problem. Doing nothing, or simply just talking, is being part of the problem. People must get involved with the youth now.”
Memphis police said Sunday there have already been 19 murders in the city so far this year, in less than seven weeks.
At this time last year, there had been 23.
Millican’s family said they’re planning a candlelight vigil in his honor.
This is an ongoing investigation. If you have any information on the suspect, call CrimeStoppers at 528-CASH.