In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on a summer evening, the life of a 2-year-old girl named Zymeiia Stevens was tragically cut short. On July 21, 2020, a gunshot was heard around 7:30 p.m. near 105th Street and Daphne Street. Witnesses saw Zymeiia's mother, Jasmine Daniels, then 22 years old, run outside with her injured daughter in her arms. Neighbors rushed to help, performing CPR on the young girl before paramedics arrived.
Despite their efforts and those of the first responders, Zymeiia was pronounced dead while on the way to Children's Wisconsin.
In the immediate aftermath, Jasmine Daniels provided investigators with multiple, conflicting stories about what had happened. Initially, she claimed her daughter was struck by a stray bullet from a shootout that occurred outside their basement apartment. She then altered her account, blaming her own 3-year-old son for the shooting, stating he had found a gun she kept for protection and accidentally fired it. Her stories continued to change, with another version involving an unknown man who entered their apartment, cleaned a gun, and accidentally shot Zymeiia before fleeing. When detectives interviewed her young son, he reportedly said, "Nuk-Nuk hurt" his sister, and Daniels confirmed that "Nuk-Nuk" was a nickname her son used for her.
Ultimately, confronted with inconsistencies in her accounts, Daniels admitted that she was the one who had shot her daughter. She confessed to "accidentally" shooting Zymeiia while she was "playing around" with a gun in the basement. Daniels was arrested and charged with first-degree reckless homicide. In September 2021, she pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of neglecting a child, resulting in death. Jasmine Daniels was sentenced to eight years in prison, to be followed by eight years of extended supervision for her role in the death of her daughter, Zymeiia Stevens.
