MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Tawana Akins said getting a phone call Friday morning that someone had shot and killed her nephew, Ralph Carr, felt like a recurring nightmare.
"I'm like , no, this cannot be happening again to our family because this is the fifth family member and the fourth nephew that I lost," Akin said.
In February 2016, she rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center because another nephew, King Carter, had been shot.
He was 6 years old.
"I saw the helicopter airlifting him to the hospital and I ran every light to get there," she said. "But when we got there a few minutes later they came out and said he was gone."
King was walking to the store to buy candy, caught in the crossfire of a shootout in northwest Miami-Dade County. Police arrested three teenagers after the shooting.
Akins said her family wants answers about who killed Carr, who was 24 years old.
"He went downstairs to get into his vehicle, and as he was getting into his vehicle he was shot up by two black males," she said.
Akins said he was leaving an apartment complex on Northwest 70th Street near Eighth Avenue. Bullet holes mark the railings and a small memorial now sits outside.
"No one wants to say anything and it's going to keep on happening and happening and happening," Akins said.
She said acts of violence prevent young people from "fulfilling their dreams."