INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) — A woman has died and her 3-year-old injured in a shooting early Tuesday.
Family members have identified the victims for Eyewitness News as Tatyana Sims, 20, and her daughter Malajah White. It happened on the northeast side in the 3300 block of Hovey Street, near East 33rd Street.
"Completely gone," said Jessika Quinn, one of the victim's best friends. "And she was taken away from her baby. It's hard to wrap our minds around."
Quinn is also friends with the victim's youngest sister, Danielle Smith, who she offered comfort outside the house where the shooting happened overnight.
"Tatyana is such an amazing person I just don't know who would want to hurt her that bad," Smith said.
Sources tell Eyewitness News when Tatyana got up overnight to check on her 3-year-old daughter Malajah, someone fired multiple rounds into their home. Sims boyfriend was home at the time but was not hurt.
Officers talked with the boyfriend to try to gather as much information as possible about who would fire a gun into the home and why.
Three-year-old Malajah was struck by one of the bullets and rushed to the hospital.
"She was grazed. I believe she had a small skull fracture," another family friend, Ashley Simmons said. "But she was okay. They would only let her mom up to see her. She said she was up watching TV so she is doing good."
Crime lab workers spent hours Tuesday morning on scene placing evidence markers and collecting other evidence from inside the residence where the young mother lost her life.
"It doesn't even seem real," Smith said.
Family identified Tatyana as the person shot dead in the home although the Marion County Coroner was still working on a positive ID and other family notifications as of Tuesday afternoon.
"I talked to her at 10 right before I went to sleep," Smith said. "We were just talking about the baby. We were leaving grandma's house. It doesn't make sense to me at all."
IMPD has not release any suspect information nor made mention of any person of interest in the deadly shooting.
If you have any information about the Hovey Street shooting call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 317-262 TIPS.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the IMPD Homicide Office at (317) 327-3475 or Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at (317) 262-8477.