Aniya Allen remembered with street signs

MINNEAPOLIS — It’s been 3 years of pain and anger for a family still searching for answers after losing their baby girl.

6-year-old Aniya Allen was shot and killed by a stray bullet near 36th and Penn Avenues North in north Minneapolis.

“I miss her smile, I miss her voice, I just miss having her around me,” said Latonya Allen, Aniya’s grandmother.

Year after year, loved ones leave stuffed animals and balloons near her picture. This year, city leaders are adding her name to the street signs as a way to honor her.

“We thought it was a good thing, a kind gesture for them to think about and remember her,” said KG Wilson, Allen’s grandfather and community activist.

During Thursday Minneapolis City Council meeting Ward 4 councilwoman LaTrisha Vetaw held back tears reflecting on the horrible day Allen was killed.

“This street renaming in her honor is in hopes that someone will come forward and talk about what happened to that baby,” Vetaw said.

Wilson hopes this addition will bring his family justice.

“We continue to want justice with this street we hope that memory or somebody finds it in their heart to say look wow now there’s a street named after her we need to come clean and come forward,” Wilson said.

There is a $180,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest and conviction in the shootings of Aniya Allen and 10-year-old  LaDavione Garrett Jr.– who was shot just weeks before her.

12-year-old Trinity Ottoson-Smith was fatally shot two days before Allen. A Minneapolis man is serving over 37 years in prison for her death.