Milwaukee girl shot, uncle sentenced to 17 years in prison

MILWAUKEE – A Milwaukee man has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for firing shots into a home – critically injuring his own niece – in July 2022.

John Jackson Jr., 30, pleaded guilty earlier this month to first-degree reckless injury and first-degree recklessly endangering safety. In addition to prison time, he was sentenced to five years of extended supervision. 

According to a criminal complaint, Milwaukee police officers were called to a home near 49th and Meinecke the morning of July 24, 2022. When the first officer got there, he saw 5-year-old Ke’yari Redding’s father holding her. She had been shot. 

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The officer performed CPR prior to firefighters arriving on the scene and taking the girl for treatment to Children’s Wisconsin, the complaint states.

Investigators spoke with the father of the 5-year-old girl. He said he was sitting on a couch when he heard “multiple gunshots coming from outside the residence.” He told police he looked over and saw his daughter was shot and bleeding. He provided aid to his daughter as his sister called 911.

Immediately after the shooting, the girl’s father looked outside “and saw an older model white Pontiac Firebird” driving south on 49th Street. The passenger window on the Firebird was down, and (the father) could see John Jackson driving the Firebird.” Jackson is the brother of the girl’s mother, the complaint states.

A Milwaukee detective conducted an in-custody interview of Jackson. Per the complaint, Jackson said he went to the house near 49th and Meinecke to “shoot up the house.” He indicated he was “fed up” with the father of the little girl. Jackson “confirmed that he did not know if he struck anyone, but targeted the house because he knew that (the father) lived here.” When the detective told Jackson his actions resulted in his own niece being shot, he responded that “his life was over, and he will be locked up forever.”

Redding was shot and critically wounded. She was left paralyzed, but her mother said she “will walk again” when speaking to FOX6 News in April 2023.