Milwaukee shooting: Child shoots child, women sentenced to probation
MILWAUKEE - The second of two Milwaukee women convicted of child neglect after a 4-year-old shot an 8-year-old has now been sentenced to probation.
In court:
Court records show 24-year-old Vanta'jah Westmoreland pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor child neglect counts, and a felony count was dismissed as part of a plea deal on Friday.
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Judge Anderson Gansner then sentenced Westmoreland to two years' probation with conditions that include absolute sobriety and not having any guns.
Nakia Piggee, 29, reached a plea deal and was convicted of two misdemeanor child neglect counts in April 2025. A felony and a third misdemeanor were dismissed. She, too, was sentenced to two years' probation at that time.
Nakia Piggee; Vanta'Jah Westmoreland
Child shoots child
The backstory:
Prosecutors said Piggee and Westmoreland left a group of children unattended inside an apartment on 75th Street, just northeast of 76th and Brown Deer, when the shooting happened on Nov. 8, 2024.
According to a criminal complaint, there were four kids in the apartment at the time: the 8-year-old girl who was shot, the 4-year-old boy, another 8-year-old and a 2-year-old.
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Investigators later determined Piggee and Westmoreland had been watching the group of kids but left them unattended inside the apartment, court filings said. They returned roughly 40 minutes later after the 8-year-old girl called and said she was bleeding.
When asked who shot her, the complaint said the victim pointed at the 4-year-old boy. The victim said she knew a gun was kept under a mattress in the bedroom, the boy grabbed it, it went off, and the boy put it back under the bed.
Shooting at 75th Street apartment complex, near 76th and Brown Deer
Investigators determined the boy had been dropped off at the apartment to be babysat minutes before Piggee and Westmoreland left, according to court filings.
Prosecutors said the apartment was "filthy and littered with food, dirty clothes, cigarettes' ashes and plastic bottles." The bedroom was "littered further with liquor bottles, ashes, ashtrays (sic) and diapers." Police did not find any firearm safety items, such as a gun lock or safe, anywhere in the apartment.
In the bedroom, the complaint said police located the "severely disabled" 2-year-old child in a crib. Between the crib and a mattress, officers found a single bullet casing. On the floor, police found a bloody t-shirt with an apparent bullet hole in it – as well as a bloody blanket.
Women in custody
What they're saying:
Piggee told police she was out for groceries when the shooting happened and claimed to not know where the kids would have gotten a gun, per the complaint. However, she later told investigators she knew there was a gun in the apartment, which belonged to Westmoreland, but "forgot it was there."
Westmoreland spoke to police at the scene. Prosecutors said she told investigators a 16-year-old boy removed the gun from the apartment after the shooting "so no one would get in trouble."
The complaint said a resident of another apartment told police she was getting ready to leave that day when her friend heard a gunshot. She said they went to see what happened, and Westmoreland handed her a gun that was wrapped in a pair of sweatpants. The gun was then put into the 16-year-old's backpack, where police found it still wrapped in the sweatpants.
The Source: Information in this story is from the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office and Wisconsin Circuit Court.