Family searches for answers in daughter's unsolved homicide

MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) - A Brooklyn Park family rallied for justice Saturday afternoon, four months after their loved one was shot and killed. 

Police found Tyneisha Pate's body near 22nd Avenue North and Lyndale Avenue North on January 30. The case remains unsolved.

“There’s no excuses to this, somebody knows something,” said Shell Pate, Tyneisha’s mother.

The family found it difficult in some ways to return to the scene, because of the memories it brought back.

“Hearing my mom scream out, crying, not believing that’s my sister laying right over there on that ground, you know,” said Precious Hornsby, Tyneisha’s sister.  

Pate lobbied MAD DADS to organize the rally, similar to others held in North Minneapolis over the years. MAD DADS was happy to oblige, using the event to call attention to other unsolved homicides in Minneapolis, in a scene that was at times emotional.

“The homicide’s over, but this continues to go: this hurt, this pain,” said V.J. Smith, leader of the Minneapolis Chapter of MAD DADS, while comforting Shell Pate. 

Family members described Tyneisha Pate, 20, as clever and outgoing and a devoted mother to her three-year-old daughter A’Millonna Pate. 

“Just a part of you is gone. You feel empty,” Hornsby said.

The family hopes to keep the case in the public eye. They are planning an event for Pate’s birthday in June.