As a 16-year-old headed to St. Paul’s East Side to see her sister Friday, her bus was sidetracked by police squads blocking the street.
Keiariale Nunn figured there was a car crash, though her sister, 17-year-old Keyira Patricia Monay Nunn, was nowhere to be found when Keiariale arrived at their grandmother’s home. After waiting around, she and her cousin headed to Minneapolis.
Later that night, Keiariale Nunn received a call that stopped her in her tracks. The police activity that she saw earlier was the aftermath of a shooting that claimed her sister’s life.
“My grandma told me, ‘Keyira’s dead,’ ” said Keiariale Nunn, as she cried Monday. “I was thinking she was kidding, but then my uncle got on the phone and I knew it was real because my uncle — he never cries.”
Keyira Nunn was shot as she rode in a vehicle near Third Street East and Van Dyke Street about 5 p.m. Friday. The man who was driving continued for a couple of blocks to Wilson Avenue and Van Dyke Street. Paramedics rendered aid to Nunn, but she died at the scene.
On Monday, police said they continue to investigate what led to the shooting. They’ve made no arrests in the case.
Keiariale Nunn believes there is no way her sister could have been the intended target of the shooting.
“There’s no reason for anybody to want to kill my sister,” she said.
Keyira was the 11th homicide victim of the year in St. Paul, and the fourth teen girl killed in a shooting.
Around the United States, 76 percent of homicide victims are male, according to Dallas Drake, principal researcher at the Center for Homicide Research, a nonprofit based in Minneapolis. Most victims are 16 to 34 years old.
“It’s not a surprise to see young men as victims, but it’s much rarer to see females, and very disheartening,” Drake said.
SHOT AS SHE RODE IN VEHICLE
Keyira Nunn, who had attended Johnson High School and other St. Paul Public Schools, was in the 11th grade at City Academy High School in St. Paul, her sister said. She was earning A’s and B’s, and talked about becoming a nurse or an actress. In the short term, she was excited for summer and to turn 18 on June 28.
“She was a beautiful person,” her sister said. “She was smart and funny and happy. She had her rough days, but she was trying to find herself, wanted to get on the right track.”
On Friday, Keiariale Nunn and her cousin took a bus to see Keyira, who stayed with her grandmother in St. Paul. The sisters last talked about 4 p.m. and Keiariale told her they were on the way, though it took longer than she expected.
Keyira told her sister that, while she waited, she would hang out with a man. Keiariale said the man, who is in his early 20s, is acquainted with one of her friends. She and Keyira had met him the weekend before.
The man was apparently driving when Keyira Nunn was shot, her sister said. Police told the family that the teen was shot in the side and the bullet went into her chest. The driver reported that the bullet almost hit him, and that he called the police and tried to give Keyira CPR, Keiariale said she was also told.
When Keiariale heard from her family about the shooting, her cousin convinced her that maybe her sister was in the hospital and would be OK.
“I was just praying to God,” said the 16-year-old. “I said, ‘Please, please don’t take my sister away.’ ”
But when Keiariale’s uncle picked her up and brought her to police headquarters in St. Paul, she saw other relatives were there and weeping, and she realized that her sister was gone.
3 OTHER TEEN GIRLS KILLED THIS YEAR
The Nunn sisters knew Sadeya Hall, a 16-year-old who was killed in a shooting in St. Paul in February, though they had not spent time with her recently, Keiariale Nunn said.
“When I heard Sadeya got shot, it broke my heart because I’m like, ‘What did she even do to deserve that? Nothing,’ ” Keiariale Nunn said.
Hall’s homicide remains unsolved and police said it remains under investigation.
The other teen girls killed in St. Paul this year were Olivia McIntosh, 17, and her 19-year-old sister, Maria McIntosh. Their father was also killed and the suspect, who had a child with Maria, shot and killed himself, police have said.
About 30 percent of homicides are domestic or family-related, according to Drake, the homicide researcher. When a shooting is gang-related or a gun fight breaks out in the street, girls or women who are killed tend to be bystanders and not the target of shootings, said Drake, who doesn’t know the particulars of the St. Paul homicides.
Keiariale Nunn said her family needs justice, as does Hall’s.
“It’s just so sad that people have to prove that they’re tough and shoot teenage girls,” she said. “Why? I just don’t understand.”