A rapper, businesswoman and nursing student from Detroit has been killed in a shocking shooting in Atlanta, leaving her family heartbroken and police searching for answers.
What exactly happened
In the early hours of Wednesday, April 8, Atlanta Police were called to a scene at around 1:23am. When officers arrived, they found 36-year-old Qualeisha Barnes unresponsive inside her white Range Rover Sport, a luxury SUV worth about $80,000 parked in the middle of a street in Atlanta in Georgia, according to People. She had been shot multiple times and was declared dead at the scene by emergency services.
Her mother, Francine Lopez-Stewart, told 11Alive that Barnes was 14 weeks pregnant at the time of her death.
Police believe the shooter likely fired from outside the vehicle and then ran away. No suspect has been identified so far. Investigators are reviewing CCTV footage from the area and talking to neighbors to find out what may have led to the shooting, Lt Christopher Butler told Atlanta News Now.
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What’s her mother is saying?
Barnes’ mother, Francine Lopez-Stewart told 11Alive that she believes more than one person may have been involved in her daughter’s death. She said she wants everyone responsible to be punished.
“If you instigate something that causes a murder, then you need some kind of, I mean, you need something. I think you need to go to jail too,” she said.
Lopez-Stewart also spoke about what her daughter was like as a person. “Generally, if you met LeLe, you instantly loved her and she was such a jokester. She liked to laugh, and she was always cracking jokes on me,” she told 11Alive.
Barnes’ sister, Shatara Davis also became emotional while speaking to 11Alive. “I know her as Qualeisha. I know her as LeLe. I know her as we, in the same house, in the same bed. That’s what I know her as. All that friend stuff, I don’t care about none of that. That was my sister. That was my baby,” she said.
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Who was Qualeisha Barnes?
Barnes was more than just a rapper. She was originally from Detroit in Michigan and had been living in Atlanta for nearly 10 years, according to People.
Along with her music career under the name Siditty, she was also the CEO of an online store called So Siditty Boutique.
At the time of her death, she was studying to become a nurse and was close to finishing her degree. Her mother told 11Alive that she had recently made the dean’s list.
“She made the dean’s list. She had, like, two more semesters to go. She was so proud of herself, and we were so proud of her,” Lopez-Stewart said.
