MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — The family of a little boy who was killed by a stray bullet doesn’t want the crime to become the next cold case.
They’re pleading for help in finding Terrell Mayes’ killer. The 3-year-old was going up the stairs in his north Minneapolis home on Monday night, when a bullet burst through the wall and hit him.
The organization MAD DADs is getting involved in this case. They’ve been handing out fliers late Wednesday, trying to generate more interest in this case.
Terrell’s family hopes a $1,000 reward will help catch the killer.
Terrell was trying to get away from the gunfire Monday night.
But instead, he became the victim of a stray bullet.
“Junior was carrying his plate of spaghetti, trying to get up the stairs. He was almost to the top and by the time I got to him, he was at the bottom of the stairs,” said Terrell’s aunt, Lola Tolbert. “And I just seen him right there, and I begged him, ‘Please.’ I pleaded with him, ‘Come on, Junior. Please, please, please.’ I called 911. I was going crazy.”
Tolbert said he followed his oldest brother up the stairs of their Colfax Avenue home once they heard gunshots. But Terrell never made it to the top.
Minneapolis Police say the family wasn’t the intended target of a shooting more than a block away. The bullet penetrated the outside wall and hit Terrell in the back of his head.
“Because someone running through the fields, shooting, a little boy lost his life in his own house,” Tolbert said.
His aunt said Terrell loved to smile and he loved to play.
He even recently started to walk.
His family says they’ll find peace when they find who killed him.
“I don’t want this just to go as a cold case. I want this to be ongoing, until somebody finds somebody who did this or had something to do with this,” Tolbert said.
The flier being handed out by MAD DADs also have information about a vigil coming up on this weekend. It will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday at 26th and Colfax, just down the street from where Terrell died.
There is a $1,000 reward to help catch Terrell’s killer.
If you know anything, please call 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
On Wednesday, County Attorney Mike Freeman held a press conference on gun crime and the efforts being done to stop this kind of violence. Click here for Holly Wagner’s report.
