Mother of baby killed in shooting wants memorial items returned

“We came back, and everybody was with us. And there was absolutely nothing here,” Lynch said.

Her daughter, Malijah Grant, was shot while sitting in her car seat on April 16. Lynch and her husband were in the car, too, driving home from Safeway and getting ready to make tacos for dinner.

Lynch said she remembers driving up onto the curb as they came under fire.

“The last memory I have is looking into the backseat and seeing a gunshot to her head,” Lynch said.

Kent police have four persons of interest in the case, and they are in custody on unrelated charges. No one has been charged with Malijah’s homicide.

Lynch said what she misses most is her daughter’s cry when she was hungry, and how she would slide off the bed to ask for attention.

“I would die to just hear her cry again,” she said.

Her daughter was born with a heart condition, and after surviving two open-heart surgeries, she was killed with a bullet.

Since the death, Lynch said she’s been coming to the site every other day, just to have breakfast at the spot where her daughter was last alive.

Seeing the crosses and angels there made her feel Malijah’s spirit was still there. “So I know she’s not forgotten,” she said.

KIRO 7 checked with the Washington Department of Transportation, the city of Kent, and the neighboring apartment complex. No one said they touched any of the memorial items.

Lynch said she hopes they weren’t taken out of ill will. She said she would have gladly taken them home if they were in the way.

“Please bring it back. There should be no reason for anybody to touch anything here,” Lynch said.

Anyone with information about the homicide should contact Kent police.