Marvayah Sheray Pearl Darby, a 12-year-old Black girl, was killed during the early morning hours of June 13, 2025, when gunfire tore into her family’s Milwaukee home while she was sleeping. The shooting occurred at approximately 1:20 a.m. in the 5000 block of North 73rd Street, near North 73rd Street and West Fairmount Avenue on Milwaukee’s northwest side. Investigators said someone outside the residence fired numerous rounds toward and into the house.
Marvayah was in her bedroom when one of the bullets struck her in the head. Emergency personnel responded to the home, but she could not be saved and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The circumstances suggested that Marvayah was an innocent victim caught in an attack directed at the residence rather than someone involved in the events that led to the gunfire. Milwaukee Police Inspector Paul Lough later said investigators believed she had simply been asleep when she was struck. Police did not publicly establish a motive for the shooting or explain why the home was fired upon. Investigators also have not publicly identified who the intended target may have been, if anyone inside the residence was specifically targeted.
As detectives investigated, attention turned to a vehicle that may have been connected to the shooting. The FBI and Milwaukee Police Department have said they believe a silver or gray SUV may have been involved. Authorities have described the shooter or shooters only as unknown individuals who fired multiple rounds from an unknown vehicle, and no publicly identified suspect has been named.
The investigation struggled to produce an arrest in the months following Marvayah’s death. By December 2025, Milwaukee police acknowledged that leads had slowed considerably and that the case had effectively gone cold. Marvayah’s mother, Melonie Davis Darby, publicly described the devastating effect the killing had on the family and pleaded for someone with knowledge of the shooting to come forward. Authorities expressed the belief that someone in the community may know who was responsible or may have information about the vehicle involved.
With the homicide still unsolved, the FBI joined Milwaukee police in increasing efforts to identify those responsible. Federal authorities announced a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the identification, arrest, and conviction of the person or people responsible for Marvayah’s killing. The FBI continued to publicly list her case as a “Seeking Information” investigation, indicating that authorities were still attempting to identify the killer or killers.
As of the latest publicly available information, no arrest, criminal charge, trial, or conviction has been announced in connection with Marvayah Darby’s murder. The individual or individuals who fired into the North 73rd Street home remain unidentified, and investigators continue to seek information about both the shooters and the silver or gray SUV believed to have possibly been involved. Anyone with information has been asked to contact the FBI’s Milwaukee Field Office or the Milwaukee Police Department as authorities continue working to determine who fired the shots and why Marvayah was killed while sleeping inside her own home.
