A’yanna Allen was 7 when she was killed on December 4, 2016, in Salisbury, North Carolina. She was sleeping at her grandmother’s house when a barrage of gunfire struck the home. The autopsy found 20 gunshot wounds affecting toes, legs, abdomen, back, head and chest; the cause of death was listed as multiple gunshot wounds and the death classified as a homicide. Her grandmother, Shirley Robinson, survived a gunshot wound to the leg and A’yanna was pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators say the shooting at the house was connected to an earlier incident the same day in which 22-year-old Sharod R. Mathis was shot and killed in the parking lot of the Firewater restaurant. No arrests have been announced in A’yanna’s murder. A $20,000 reward has been offered for information leading to an arrest, and in September 2021 police confirmed a rifle seized by the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office was the same weapon used in the killing, but the case remains unsolved.

Did anyone in Salisbury have information about either the restaurant shooting or activity around Shirley Robinson’s home that night?