KG Wilson reclaims his voice five years after granddaughter’s death
KG Wilson embraces Ezakai Blevins at an 18th birthday party held in honor of Terell Mayes, who was shot and killed at 3 years old in 2011. Ezakai is the nephew of Terell. Photo by Azhae’la Hanson
By Milania Little and Shy Martin, News Interns
KG Wilson served as an activist in Minnesota for three decades, supporting grieving families that were impacted by gun violence.
Wilson would stand at Lyndale Avenue and West Broadway every Tuesday, passing out food and prayers to passersby with his daughter, Curtina Wilson. But when a stray bullet killed his 6-year-old granddaughter Aniya Allen in 2021, he turned a life of advocacy into a pensive look over his shoulder.
The fifth anniversary of her passing was this May. On that day, he decided it was time to turn the devastation and anger into something positive.
“Aniya’s death almost destroyed me,” Wilson said in an interview with North News. It was only recently that he said he felt reinvigorated to support families and speak out again about gun violence.
A picture of Aniya Allen is stapled to her memorial at the intersection of 36th and Penn Avenue North. Five years later, her killer has still not been found. Photo by Azhae’la Hanson
Wilson tied balloons to the fence at Penn and Lowry avenues in June, where a then-2-year-old LeVonte Jones was killed in a drive-by shooting back in 2016.
He embraced the nephew of Terrell Mayes in July, who was shot and killed in his home in 2011 at three years old. The day marked what would have been Terrell's 18th birthday.
Aniya’s death was a part of a series of shooting deaths of three children, including Aniya, 9-year-old Trinity Ottoson-Smith, and 10-year-old Ladavionne Garrett Jr.
Aniya and Trinity died of their injuries and Ladavionne was left disabled and in the care of his grandmother.
Of all the children mentioned, only Trinity’s killer has been found and charged (to 37.5 years in prison). Charges against the main suspect in LeVonte’s case were dismissed in 2021 because of a lack of information. There is still no information on the person(s) responsible for shooting Terell Mayes. Whoever shot Ladavionne Garrett Jr., Trinity, and Aniya are still not charged.
Wilson is convinced people in the community know who killed these children.
Wilson hit pause on activism following his granddaughter's murder, jaded by the silence that came following her death.
Being who he was in the community, Wilson thought he’d get a call from somebody, letting him know who killed Aniya.
“But it ends up not happening,” Wilson said. “Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, and months turned to years.”
The gun, but no shooter
Aniya’s murder is one of at least four unsolved shooting homicide cases since 2011. MPD solved 41% of its homicide cases in 2020, and it jumped up to 80% in 2025, according to reporting by MPR News.
Since Aniya’s shooting, two arrests have been made in connection to the gun that killed Aniya but no one has been convicted of her murder. One of those guns was also connected to the shooting of Trinity.
Patrick Dembley was arrested in 2022 for possession of and shooting a gun at a bar that was connected to the scene of Aniya's death. The gun’s 9 millimeter shell casings matched what was found at 36th Street and Penn Avenue, where she was shot. MPD failed to connect how Dembley was connected to the shooting itself and he was arrested only for the bar shooting.
William Burton was sentenced in February 2026 to three years in prison for illegally purchasing 43 handguns from November 2019 and August 2020. One of the guns he bought and later sold was connected to the shootings of Aniya and Trinity.
Wilson attended Burton's sentencing in February, where he made a plea to Burton to share any information on the people he sold the gun to.
Burton didn’t respond.
“I was really upset by it,” Wilson said. “I think what bothers me the most is I didn't see a public apology, and they didn't tell who they sold the guns to.”
Wilson is a frequent visitor to his granddaughter’s memorial at the intersection of 36th and Penn Avenue North. Photo by Azhae’la Hanson
After repeated pleas from families and law enforcement, no one has come forward with information about Aniya’s deaths despite clear connections to one gun.
Why people don’t come forward
Minneapolis Police Department’s Lt. Kelly O'Rourke works in the juvenile investigation unit and has held a supervisory role in investigations including gangs, homicides, and non-fatal shootings for the past 29 years.
O’Rourke said that it's important for potential witnesses to feel safe so they can come forward with information that can lead to potential arrests.
Why people don’t talk is a question for the community at large, O’Rourke said, but he understands why there is frustration.
“When there is frustration, it is when the community has information and they're unwilling, for a multitude of reasons, to not bring it forward and share that information with us,” O’Rourke said in an interview with North News.
O’Rourke said community members are worried about their own safety when bringing information to the police.
“The vast majority of our homicides or non-fatal shootings are solved with inside information, either from the community or the participants,” O’Rourke said.
Retaliation is a major concern for people speaking up.
Finding hope with time
O’Rourke said MPD still has hope for solving open cases and believes people will come forward with time.
“They get comfortable in a conversation with somebody and share information, and then that call leads to somebody calling it a tip,” MPD’s Sgt. Garrett Partan said.
Time has also helped Wilson feel like he is coming back to himself again, for Aniya’s sake.
“I stopped thinking about how l was feeling and started thinking about what she would want me to do,” Wilson said.