The cousin of Janelle Monáe has been killed in a drive-by shooting.
Natasha Hays was shot dead in the early hours of Tuesday (August 30) morning while she was sleeping in her home in Kansas City, reports the local Fox News station FOX4KC.
The day after the shooting, Monáe took to Twitter to express her grief for Hays. “Gun violence has struck home,” she wrote in the first of a series of tweets. “My beautiful 1st cousin was murdered. She was a mother of 3. Loved by her community. #NatashaHays #sayhername”
“Nobody deserves to lose their mother, sister, cousin, friend, etc to the hands of evil. Evil has no race,” she continued. “Hearing your uncle on the phone while he tries to make sense of his daughter being murdered is the most helpless feeling in the entire world.”
See the series of tweets below.
Gun violence has struck home. My beautiful 1st cousin was murdered. She was a mother of 3. Loved by her community. #NatashaHays #sayhername
— Janelle Monáe, Cindi (@JanelleMonae) August 31, 2016
#KansasCity #Gunviolence is still keeping our city in a dark place. The fear of "who is next?" never leaves. Praying4more light. Help us.
— Janelle Monáe, Cindi (@JanelleMonae) August 31, 2016
Nobody deserves to lose their mother, sister, cousin, friend, etc to the hands of evil. Evil has no race. #Gunviolence #NatashaHays
— Janelle Monáe, Cindi (@JanelleMonae) August 31, 2016
Hearing your uncle on the phone while he tries to make sense of his daughter being murdered is the most helpless feeling in the entire world
— Janelle Monáe, Cindi (@JanelleMonae) August 31, 2016
According to FOX4KC, family members of Hays say they believe they know who fired the shots, after hearing from the victim that she’d been threatened by an individual in the days leading up to the killing.
Hays was a caregiver at the retirement home Life Care Center in the city.