On the evening of August 20, 2017, 30-year-old Nakieka Taylor, known as Kiki, was fatally shot at the Warren Gardens apartment complex on Walnut Avenue in Roxbury. According to accounts, shots rang out just after 9:30 p.m.; Nakieka was either walking from a friend’s apartment to her own or sitting on her family’s patio when a bullet struck her in the stomach. She told her mother, Nannie Taylor, she couldn’t feel her legs and was taken to a hospital, where she died of internal bleeding.

Family and neighbors described Nakieka as a kind, joyful lifeguard who worked at city pools and the Boys and Girls Club and believe she was not the intended target. A makeshift memorial with flowers and candles spelling out Kiki appeared where she fell. One witness said they saw a man with a gun run toward Warren Street after the shooting, but no arrests have been announced and the case remains unsolved.

If anyone knew Nakieka, saw activity around Warren Gardens that night, or has information about the man seen running toward Warren Street, please come forward.