On the night of March 7, 2001, four-year-old Shania Salter was killed at her home on Patton Street in Detroit when a bullet from an AK-47 struck her during a barrage of gunfire that riddled the house. The shooting occurred around 10:30 p.m.; nine other people were inside but none were physically injured. The investigation was complicated by the absence of eyewitnesses to the actual shooting.

Events earlier that evening help explain how the violence escalated. A resident, Darnel Wilkins, fired a shot from a .38-caliber revolver into the air after a verbal altercation with three intoxicated men. Afterwards two men, Rodney Green (known as Hot Rod) and Timothy Barnes, were heard plotting retaliation; one witness said Barnes phoned his brother demanding a nine-millimeter pistol. Testimony about those threats became central to the case.

Rodney Green and Timothy Barnes were arrested and later convicted in connection with Shania’s death. Green was convicted of first-degree premeditated murder, nine counts of assault with intent to commit murder, and being a felon in possession of a firearm; he received life. Barnes was convicted of second-degree murder and related assault counts and was sentenced to forty to seventy-five years.

If anyone knew Shania or has information about the events that preceded that night, please share what is remembered.