Eleven-year-old Taliyah Clarke was fatally shot inside her Overtown apartment on July 9, 2024. The shooting happened around noon in the children’s bedroom near Northwest 2nd Avenue and Northwest 17th Street while Taliyah was with her 9-year-old brother. Her father, Titato Hatzate Clarke, and grandmother, Charlene Ann Webster, reported hearing a loud pop and found Taliyah with a gunshot wound to the chest. She was taken to Holtz Children’s Hospital, underwent emergency surgery, and was pronounced dead at 1:09 p.m.

Detectives recovered a Glock handgun wrapped in a pink scarf and brown blanket in the bedroom, along with a spent casing and large pools of blood. Three family members — Titato Clarke, Webster, and Titato Clarke’s partner, Nancy Severe — were arrested and charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child after providing inconsistent statements, and Titato Clarke was noted to have a history of 12 felony convictions. Prosecutors later dropped the manslaughter charges, citing insufficient evidence and witness noncooperation.

Taliyah’s mother, Chantrell Manning, urged safer storage of firearms to keep guns away from children. Does anyone have information about the circumstances in that apartment or about the firearm that could help clarify what happened?