Vigil held in honor of grandmother killed by a gun violence

MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) - They stood feet from where a stray bullet killed the innocent grandma. Gathered at the intersection of Penn Ave N and 21st Avenue, family and community members called for an end to gun violence, the kind of violence that killed Birdell Beeks, a 59-year-old grandmother.

Beeks was with her granddaughter last Thursday when bullets rang out in broad daylight.

“I heard the gun shots and I was telling her nanny move back, and she couldn't because there was a car behind her. And she said, baby they got me,” Measha Griggin, the grandaughter, said. Those words, “baby they got me,” were the last words of Measha's grandma.

On Tuesday, family and community members gathered to both celebrate the life of Grandma Beeks, and to call for an end to gun violence. 

“The message is that the community is tired. We’re tired of the violence,” Salesha Beeks, the daughter of Beeks, told Fox 9.

The family of Birdell Beeks has established a GoFundMe page: https://www.gofundme.com/birdellbeeks59