A woman is shot just steps from her front door
Tomika Isabella Swoope, a 19-year-old African-American woman known to friends as “Jay,” was a recent high school graduate with a bright future she hoped would include a career as a police officer. Raised by her grandmother, Jeane Tinsley, since she was six months old, Tomika was described as a young woman with big dreams who enjoyed playing sports, especially basketball and football. She had graduated from MERC Alternative High School in 2010 and was working as a server at a Culver's restaurant. Her life was marked by a previous family tragedy; her older brother, Anthony Price, was beaten to death in Minneapolis in 2003.
On the evening of Monday, April 25, 2011, Tomika’s life was violently cut short. She had walked a cousin to a bus stop at 33rd Street and Chicago Avenue South, and on her way back home, she stopped at the Southside Food & Deli for an orange Push-Up and a Slim Jim for her grandmother. Shortly after 10 p.m., as she walked along the 3200 block of Columbus Avenue South, just steps from her front door, multiple gunshots rang out. According to family members, Tomika and her cousins had noticed a dark-colored car following them just before the shooting. A bullet struck Tomika just above her left eyebrow. Another cousin with her, a 21-year-old man, was grazed in the hand by a bullet but survived.
Her uncle, Ernest Breland, heard the gunfire from inside the house, looked out his window, and saw his niece lying on the sidewalk. He rushed outside, picked her up, and drove her to Abbott Northwestern Hospital. From there, she was transferred to the Hennepin County Medical Center, where she remained in critical condition. Doctors gave her family little hope for survival, and Tomika Isabella Swoope died from her injuries on April 27, 2011. A Slim Jim was reportedly found underneath her body at the scene.
The Minneapolis Police Department began an immediate investigation into the homicide. Investigators and family members quickly theorized that Tomika was not the intended target. Police confirmed she had no criminal record and was not involved in any gang activity. However, they noted that some people with gang affiliations lived in her home. Her family believes she was a victim of mistaken identity in a neighborhood experiencing a turf war between rival gangs. On the night she was shot, Tomika was wearing the color red, which her family speculated may have led the assailants to wrongfully associate her with the Bloods gang.
In the days following the shooting, the community mourned the loss of the vibrant young woman. On May 1, 2011, family, friends, and community members gathered for a vigil at the corner where she was shot, laying flowers, cards, and balloons and praying for an end to violence. Among the attendees was Tomika's fifth-grade teacher, Jenny Kraft, who remembered her as a "lady with big dreams." Kraft had also been the teacher of another young girl, Tyesha Edwards, who was killed by a stray bullet in a nearby area in 2002.
The investigation into Tomika Swoope's murder has since gone cold. The dark-colored car seen following her disappeared after the shooting, and no suspects have ever been publicly identified or arrested in connection with her death. As of June 2026, her case remains listed as an unsolved homicide. The Minneapolis Police Department has periodically appealed for public assistance, and anyone with information is asked to call the TIPS Line at 612-692-8477. Tomika's family continues to wait for answers and justice in the tragic killing that ended a promising life.
