FROM THE HEART: Natasha Senat holds up her message during a news conference in Liberty City about the killing of Sherdavia Jenkins, 9. (David Adame/For the Miami Herald Staff)
A passionate plea to find a killer
By Stephanie Garry
sgarry@MiamiHerald.com
Sherrone Jenkins, whose 9-year-old daughter Sherdavia died after a stray bullet tore through her neck Saturday, was furious: at police for not responding quickly enough, at paramedics for not telling her the girl was dead and at neighbors for not helping detectives.
But the grieving mother wept on the shoulder of former congresswoman Carrie Meek Sunday with nothing but sorrow.
"Mrs. Meek," she sobbed, burying her face in the woman's white suit collar. "My baby."
Meek and her son, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Miami, stopped by the Jenkinses' Liberty City home at 1252 NW 65th Terr. Sunday to offer condolences and tell the family about a canvassing effort to find the killer. They were among about a dozen public officials who came to Liberty City to plead for information and assure the community that the killer would be found.
"This isn't going to go unpunished," Rep. Meek told Sherdavia's parents. "This is unacceptable. They need to know this community is not going to let this go."
He later told reporters that he hoped the public would respond the way it did in 1997 when a stray bullet hit 5-year-old Rickia Isaac in the head, killing her at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration in Liberty City. The tragedy catalyzed the community to crack down on violent crime, start a campaign to stop stray bullets and form MAD DADS, a group of fathers who patrol neighborhoods on bikes.
A few blocks from the girl's home, city and county commissioners held a press conference to show a united front against the recent rash of violence in Northwest Miami. In the last year, at least 18 people age 2 to 18 were murdered in Miami-Dade County.
"This is what we have become as a community," said County Commissioner Barbara Jordan. "What happens in Carol City, what happens in Liberty City, affects all of Miami."
Though Saturday passed with few witnesses talking to police, Miami Cmdr. Roy Brown said more than 10 people volunteered information Sunday. He said police have no suspects yet.
"Most of the people are afraid to come forward," Brown said, adding that residents fear retaliation for cooperating with police. "They've got to live there."
Brown said the shooting could be drug-related. Lt. Joseph Schillaci added that Miami police arrested a man just two blocks from Sherdavia's house with a pocket full of cocaine Sunday.
"We've gotten a good idea of how it happened and some of why," Brown said, but he would not specify what police know about the shooting.
At the little girl's house, the mood was not as positive. Sherdavia's parents visited with neighbors and friends on the stoop where she was shot, cursing the people they thought could have done more to save their daughter or bring the shooter to justice. By the end of the day, Sherrone was hoarse.
"She was sitting right here on the porch," she said.
Sherrone said she wasn't even told that her daughter was dead before authorities whisked her away. David, a security guard, said he sat through an excruciating bus ride after his wife called to tell him their daughter had been shot. When he arrived home, Sherrone didn't yet know that Sherdavia was dead, and she asked when she could see her again.
David told her it would be at the funeral.
"It's a domino effect," David said. "You kill a child, you destroy a whole goddamn family."
Cheryl Whitehead, who had taught Sherdavia at Lillie C. Evans Elementary School since kindergarten, said she had everything going for her - talent, a supportive family and a good education. But like so many of Whitehead's other pupils, she lived in a bad neighborhood. Whitehead, who had taught at the school for 13 years, moved to North Carolina last week because she was tired of watching children get killed.
"Something like this happened every year," she said. "I spend all this time working with these kids, and they have all this potential, and they end up with something like this because the people around them don't know how to act."
Lillie C. Evans Elementary is a school of choice, and children have to apply to attend. It offers instruction in writing, drama, broadcast and journalism. Whitehead remembers Sherdavia's mother coming to the school almost every day to work with her children on the Internet, talk with their teachers and check up on their progress. Not that they needed checking up on, Whitehead said.
"She was just the perfect student. You literally couldn't ask for a better girl," Whitehead said. "It doesn't make any sense. This little girl could have done anything."