Fifteen-year-old Nykayia Strawder was killed on the evening of August 6, 2022, on the front porch of her family’s home in the Edmondson Village neighborhood of Baltimore. A 9-year-old boy in the company of other children approached carrying a handgun and, while showing it off, it discharged. A single bullet struck Nykayia in the head; she was taken to a nearby hospital and died of her injuries. The child dropped the gun and fled the scene and could not be criminally charged because of his age under Maryland law.

Investigators traced the firearm to a relative who worked as an armed security guard. The gun was registered to the boy’s grandmother and legal guardian, April Gaskins, who told investigators she kept the weapon on the floor of her bedroom closet — a room the grandson had access to and where he often watched television. A grand jury indicted Gaskins in February 2023 on reckless endangerment and two counts of failure to secure a firearm with an unsupervised minor present. She was found guilty at trial in July 2023 of reckless endangerment and firearm access by a minor and was sentenced in September 2023 to four years in prison.

Are there neighbors or others who saw the children that evening or who might know how the handgun was stored?