Kaari Thompson was 4 years old and remembered by family as bright, charismatic and always smiling. Her grandparents called her the sweetest kid and said she brought them immense joy. Kaari attended Pittsburgh Lincoln Early Childhood, where she liked playing in the classroom’s housekeeping area and making pretend food for classmates.

On the evening of December 1, 2022, Kaari was sitting in a parked Jeep Cherokee with her mother, 21-year-old Temani Lewis, outside the Brooklyn Food Mart on Lincoln Avenue in the Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar neighborhood. Multiple people approached and opened fire on the vehicle; at least 15 shots were fired. Kaari was struck and taken to a children’s hospital, where she did not survive. Her mother was critically injured and died five days later, on December 6, 2022.

Surveillance footage showed several suspects shooting at the Jeep before fleeing, and investigators tracked one suspect to a white getaway car identified through license plate readers as registered to the mother of one of the suspects. The community held a balloon release to honor Kaari and call for an end to gun violence, and the mayor publicly condemned the shooting. If anyone has information about the December 1, 2022 shooting or the people involved, please share what you know with investigators.