NEW ORLEANS — With a Crimestoppers flyer in her hand, Maquisha Burton looks at a picture of her daughter on the front of it.
“That’s my baby,” Burton said. “That’s my child. It’s not OK.”
Dillan Burton, 7, was shot and killed the day after Christmas in New Orleans. Police say she was riding in the backseat of her mom’s car when they were caught in gunfire. Her killer hasn’t been caught.
“I just can’t see how you sleep at night,” her mother said. “You killed an innocent baby.”
Tuesday afternoon, there was a door-to-door effort for information in the very Algiers neighborhood where Dillan was killed. Of all those flyers, NOPD lieutenant and member of The National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives Regina Williams says it only takes one to get into the right hands and for change to happen, it starts with community.
“Somebody here knowns something,” Williams said. “Until we come together and walk and talk to the community, get into the community, and find out who killed this baby, nobody should be able to sleep. This should not sit right with anyone.”
“When a 7-year-old gets killed, that’s a black eye on the whole city’s face,” said Michael Willis, a member of Help Other People Endure.
Willis helped organize the call for action Tuesday and says people inside communities need to take bigger stands.
“Until we’re ready to do that and hold everyone accountable, we’re going to continue to see the same thing,” Willis said.
That also means hearing the same cries, pleading for someone to come forward to bring justice to an innocent victim.
“I don’t care how small it is, say something,” Burton said. “This is my child we’re talking about. This is my baby.”
The Crimestoppers reward in this case is $5,000. If you know anything, call Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111 or the New Orleans Police Department.
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