Jainadia Little, a 4-year-old Black/African American girl from Milwaukee, was mortally wounded in a shooting inside a residence near North 39th Street and West Sheridan Avenue on the night of February 17, 2025. Although the shooting occurred that night, online reports and the medical examiner’s information indicate that Jainadia was pronounced dead at approximately 2:56 a.m.
on February 18 after efforts to save her failed.
The emergency began at about 9:45 p.m., when a 911 dispatcher received a call from Jainadia’s aunt, Derreanna Little. According to the criminal complaint, Little did not initially speak directly to the dispatcher, but screaming could be heard before the call disconnected. A second call came from the same telephone number. Little could be heard desperately trying to keep Jainadia responsive and calling for Anthony Brookshire, Little’s boyfriend, to get the child. Milwaukee police were sent to the area shortly afterward.
By the time officers began investigating, Jainadia had been taken for emergency medical treatment. Reports indicate she was first transported to a hospital and ultimately received treatment at Children’s Wisconsin. The fatal injury was a gunshot wound to the chest. Family members later described a child who had recently begun school and had been excited about attending, leaving relatives devastated by the sudden loss.
Attention quickly turned to what had happened inside the back bedroom of the residence. Little initially told investigators that Jainadia and Little’s one-year-old child had been in the room when she heard a gun discharge. She claimed that when she entered the room, her younger child was holding a firearm. Investigators, however, said Little and Brookshire gave changing and conflicting accounts during repeated interviews.
Detectives examining the bedroom found a deflated air mattress with blood spatter near a hole in the mattress. A spent 7.62x39 cartridge casing was found on the mattress, and mail addressed to Brookshire was located in the same bedroom. Investigators also recovered an empty drum magazine and two empty extended magazines from a backpack elsewhere in the residence.
Police discovered additional firearms in a Chrysler Pacifica parked outside. One was a loaded Taurus 9mm semiautomatic handgun lying in plain view. The other was a Draco-style semiautomatic firearm chambered for 7.62x39 ammunition with an extended magazine. Investigators believed the Draco-style weapon was connected to Jainadia’s fatal wound. Court records indicated that Brookshire eventually acknowledged storing a Draco-style firearm beneath pillows on the air mattress in the bedroom. He also acknowledged that Little knew the firearm was there, contradicting earlier statements in which knowledge of the weapons had been denied.
Investigators alleged that efforts were made to move the weapon after the shooting rather than leaving the scene untouched for police. Brookshire admitted during the investigation that he had tried to clean up the scene by putting the gun into a bag. Other reporting based on the criminal complaint indicated the firearm was wrapped in clothing and moved to the vehicle before Jainadia was taken for medical care. The changing accounts and movement of the weapon became important parts of the prosecution’s case.
Brookshire was also legally prohibited from possessing firearms because of his prior felony record. Authorities said he had multiple previous convictions, including previous firearm-related convictions. Despite that prohibition, investigators said he acknowledged purchasing the weapons recovered by police.
Both Brookshire and Derreanna Little were arrested following the investigation. Brookshire was initially charged with neglecting a child resulting in death and two counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Little was initially charged with neglecting a child resulting in death. Prosecutors alleged that the loaded firearm had been left unsecured and accessible in a bedroom where children were present, creating the circumstances that led to Jainadia’s death.
Brookshire’s case ultimately resulted in a guilty plea rather than a trial. In December 2025, he pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless homicide and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The remaining charges were dismissed but read into the record for sentencing. On February 25, 2026, a Milwaukee County judge sentenced Brookshire to 15 years in prison followed by seven years of extended supervision.
The case against Little also changed substantially before it was resolved. Although she had originally faced the serious felony neglect charge, court records show that she ultimately pleaded guilty in March 2026 to two misdemeanor counts of obstructing an officer and one misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct. In April 2026, a judge imposed a sentence that included probation and 200 hours of community service. Half of those community-service hours were ordered to be performed at a Milwaukee high school, where she was expected to speak about the dangers associated with firearms.
The final court outcomes reflected different levels of criminal responsibility for the two adults, but the investigation consistently centered on the presence of loaded, unsecured firearms in a home where young children had access to the bedroom. Jainadia’s shooting on February 17 and her death several hours later turned what began as frantic emergency calls into a lengthy criminal case that ended with a reckless-homicide conviction, a lengthy prison sentence for Brookshire, and misdemeanor convictions and probation for Little.
