In the summer of 2020, a bright and loving 11-year-old girl named Anisa Scott was tragically caught in the crossfire of a violent act that ended her life. On the morning of August 11th in Madison, Wisconsin, Anisa was a passenger in a car, simply riding along, when another vehicle targeted the driver. A hail of bullets erupted between the two cars, and one stray bullet struck the young girl in the head.
She was not the intended target of the attack; the shots were meant for the driver, her mother's boyfriend.
Anisa was rushed to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries. She was placed in a medically induced coma, but the damage was too severe. Two days later, on August 13, 2020, her family made the heart-wrenching decision to remove her from life support. Her death marked the tenth homicide in Madison that year, a grim statistic that was punctuated by the loss of such a young and innocent life. The tragedy was made even more poignant by the re-emergence of a video she had made four years prior, in which a 7-year-old Anisa prayed for an end to gun violence.
The Madison Police Department quickly launched an investigation, identifying and arresting three suspects in connection with the fatal shooting. The individuals taken into custody were 19-year-old Perion Carreon, 16-year-old Andre Brown, and 17-year-old Jerry Ward. All three were charged with first-degree intentional homicide and attempted first-degree intentional homicide. Authorities reported that Carreon was driving the vehicle carrying the three suspects when the shots were fired.
In the ensuing legal proceedings, all three individuals were held accountable for their roles in Anisa's death. Andre Brown received a sentence of 35 years in prison. Perion Carreon was sentenced to 30 years. Jerry Ward Jr. later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of first-degree reckless homicide and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The convictions brought a measure of justice to Anisa's grieving family and a community shaken by the senseless violence that claimed the life of a child.
