Minneapolis shooting victim Aniya Allen remembered on ‘angelversery’

(FOX 9) - One year after six-year-old Aniya Allen was shot and killed near 36th and Penn Avenues in Minneapolis, her family and many in the community continue to wait for answers, as no arrests have been made.

"We’ve been getting some leads, we need more," Minneapolis Police Lieutenant Richard Zimmerman told FOX 9. His homicide unit is working to find Aniya’s killer, with help from the Minnesota BCA, but they need even more help.

"We don’t develop this information on our own, we have to get it from the community," Lt. Zimmerman said.

Zimmerman does not believe Aniya’s family was targeted in the shooting, but instead thinks they likely drove into an area where two groups of people were shooting at each other.

"There was quite a few rounds fired up there. I really don’t believe this person knew that they hit this little girl," he said. "It was an accident, but they have to be responsible for what they do."

One year later, without any arrests, law enforcement continues to ask someone from the community to come forward and do the right thing.

"You need that person who knows something, that thinks they know something, that has heard something. We need those calls and that’s how we put these cases together," Zimmerman said.

There is now a $180,000 pool of reward money for information leading to an arrest. Police say they aren’t interested in the shooting, but only in finding Aniya’s killer, to make sure that more innocent young lives aren’t lost to gun violence. 

Last June detectives submitted a search warrant seeking permission to search the phone of a man connected to a gun possibly used in the shooting. 

The documents say ballistic evidence at the scene matched that gun to another gun used in a shooting six days before Aniya was killed. 

But on Wednesday, investigators would not comment on that lead.