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Two years ago, when sixth-grader Sandra Parks was at Milwaukee's Keefe Avenue School, she 

The essay titled "Our Truth" took third place in Milwaukee Public School's annual Martin Luther King Jr. essay contest. In January 2017, Sandra told 

, "All you hear about is somebody dying and somebody getting shot. People do not just think about whose father or son or granddaughter or grandson was just killed."

She also said she looked forward to doing big things in her life. "I would like to stop all the violence and... negativity that's going on in the world," she said. "And stop all the black on black crimes, and all the rumors and stereotypes that's been spread around."

On Monday Sandra was shot and killed when a gunman opened fire on her house. She was 13. 

 reports authorities are still working to determine if the home was targeted.

A sixth-grader's call for an end to violence ends with an eighth-grader's death

, Isaac D. Barnes, 26, has been charged with homicide and Untrell Oden, 27, is facing two counts of being a felon with a gun.

 that her daughter was "everything this world is not."

On Tuesday night, the Milwaukee community remembered Parks at a vigil in front of her home. 

 reports that Berenice Parks told mourners that her daughter was the 12th Milwaukee public school student killed this year.

"We must not allow the lies of violence, racism, and prejudice to be our truth. The truth begins with us," wrote Sandra in her essay condemning gun violence. "Instead of passing each other like ships in the night, we must fight until our truths stretch to the ends of the world."

NewsPartners

Jessica Reedy

Author

In 2016, 13-year-old Sandra Parks won an award for her essay condemning gun violence. This week, she was killed when a gunman open fired on her home.

Milwaukee girl who condemned gun violence is killed by bullet

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