Cincinnati is grappling with the aftermath of a shooting that claimed the life of an 11-year-old girl, Queener’Re Reed, near Laurel Playground. The incident occurred on New Year’s Day, and Queener’Re succumbed to her injuries the following day at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. According to Cincinnati police, the shooting happened around 6:45 p.m. at the intersection of W. Liberty Street and John Street. Police, initially notified of the shooting at 6:42 p.m., found Reed with a gunshot wound, as reported by WLWT.
In the wake of this tragedy, the Homicide Unit is conducting a meticulous investigation, but thus far, no suspect information has been released. Former Cincinnati mayoral candidate Cory Bowman, who received a heartrending call from Reed’s grandmother, recollected her saying: "Pastor, they killed my baby," Bowman says the grandmother told him. “They killed our Queen,” in an interview obtained by FOX19. Bowman also stated that Reed had been playing with her cousins at the park when the shots were fired.
Reflecting a troubling pattern of violence in the area, the same playground was the site of a deadly drive-by shooting in 2023, where 11-year-old Dominic Davis was killed, and four other children were injured. No arrests have been made in connection with that case, detailed in an article by Cincinnati.com. This recent incident is part of a series of shootings in the West End neighborhood, which saw a mother and her two children shot on Christmas Day, although with non-fatal outcomes.
Mitch Morris, founder of Save Our Youth Kings and Queens, expressed his grief and concern regarding the continuous violence affecting local families. "I had a chance to meet the father and mother, good people, right. This tragedy, accidents keep happening in our community, and we gotta get to the bottom of it. Just stay in the fight, and keep doing what we do. Like I said, once again, we have no details, know what happened. These guns are just ripping our community, ripping us apart," Morris said to WLWT. The community calls for an end to the violence that has repeatedly shattered the peace of their neighborhood and cut short the lives of its youngest members.
