Who shot the 6-year-old Tik Tok Princess at a birthday party? Family asks for help
All they have left are memories and a picture of little Chassidy Saunders. On bent knee, she smiles, a big colorful bow in her hair. Wearing a pretty pastel rainbow-colored dress, she flashes a victory sign with two fingers on her right hand.
The 6-year-old “Tik-Tok Princess” lost her life to gunfire in January, the victim of a bullet meant for someone else at a birthday party in Miami’s Model City. Two other adults were also struck, but they survived.
Police have said little publicly about Chassidy’s death in the past four months. But on Monday, the searing pain of losing the little girl once again jolted family members — who this time gathered at the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office in a plea to the public to help solve the crime.
Chassidy’s father Charles Saunders III asked anyone with information to come forward, with promises that they could remain anonymous.
“So we can grieve and move on. It’s hard,” he said, adding that Chassidy’s younger brother keeps asking about her. “He asks when is she coming back? How is she? That hurts. I don’t know what to say to him because he’s so young.”
Chassidy’s grandmother Sharon Cullins, echoed Saunders in promising anonymity.
“It’s very hard to wake up every day and know Chassidy isn’t with us,” she said.
Friends and family gave Chassidy the monikor “Tik Tok Princess” because of the joyous dance videos she was fond of creating.
According to police and witnesses, on the Saturday evening before the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in January someone in a black car drove up to a home in the 5500 block of Northwest Sixth Place and sprayed the property with more than a dozen gunshots while people in the home were celebrating a birthday party.
Multiple law enforcement sources said they believe the target was a man and his girlfriend who were in a blue Hyundai outside the home. Chassidy and two adults were hit. Somebody at the party returned fire. Police said Chassidy and her family were just leaving and got caught in the crossfire.
Chassidy was a kindergarten student at Beacon College Prep Elementary in Opa-locka. She attended the school alongside her big sister, a 9-year-old third grader, and was beginning to excel in writing lessons.
Patrick Evans, who runs the K-8 charter school, said Chassidy had “beautiful light-colored eyes.”
“In her eyes, I saw so much sweetness and innocence. It’s heartbreaking,” he told the Miami Herald.
Last July, 7-year-old Alana Washington lost her life in a sadly similar fashion. She was at a gathering with friends outside a North Miami-Dade home, when someone opened fire from a car parked at the curb. Alana was shot in the head. A 1-year-old was also injured by the gunfire.
And just last month, 3-year-old Elijah LaFrance also lost his life to gunfire — at his own birthday party. His family had rented a home for the day in the northern end of Miami-Dade County and as they were leaving someone out front unloaded as many as 70 rounds, police said.
When police arrived they found Elijah’s dad holding him in the front yard. Casings from three different types of guns were found at the scene. A 21-year-old woman was also hit, but she survived.
As for Chassidy, law enforcement on Monday wasn’t willing to share any new information, at least publicly.
“We can not allow callous young men to callously kill our children,” said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle. “We will not allow that to happen.”
