National

Girl, 9, Wounded by Gunfire on Way to Girl Scouts Meeting

Published

12 years ago

February 6, 2015

Shanita Miller sits in her Indianapolis apartment on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015, next to her 9-year-old daughter, Sinai, resting on a living room couch. The third-grader was shot in the leg Tuesday afternoon as she was about to head to a weekly Girl Scouts meeting to pick up boxes of Girl Scout cookies to sell door-to-door for the second straight year. (AP Photo/Rick Callahan)

RICK CALLAHAN, Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A 9-year-old Indianapolis girl wounded by gunfire as she was heading off to her weekly Girl Scouts meeting to pick up cookies she planned to sell door-to-door is now racking up sales in an online cookie drive intended to send her troop on a trip.

Sinai Miller was standing outside her family’s apartment Tuesday afternoon, eager to get to its nearby clubhouse to pick up her boxes of cookies, when gunshots rang out. Her mother, 29-year-old Shanita Miller, raced outside and found blood gushing from her eldest daughter’s left calf.

Doctors treated her leg wound and sent her home. On Thursday, she sat teary-eyed and wordless on a living room couch, swaddled in a pink and purple heart-covered blanket, her left leg propped up on a pillow.

While Sinai is on the mend, her mother said the girl is traumatized, in pain and crushed that her plans for selling cookies door-to-door for the second year in a row have been sidetracked.

“She woke up early that morning, right before she went to school, and said,’Mommy, today’s Girl Scouts. We’re getting our cookies today!’ And I told her, ‘Wonderful, but we’ll do that this afternoon,'” Miller said.

Although Sinai won’t be able to go door-to-door anytime soon, she’s still selling cookies. An aunt has promised to buy 20 boxes from her, and Sinai’s teacher at Fox Hill Elementary has also promised to buy some. Also, Girls Scouts of Central Indiana has launched an online cookie drive called “Cookies for Sinai” (http://bit.ly/1yKw3Tv) that spokeswoman Deana Potterf said has generated significant sales.

“Sinai’s never been outside of Indianapolis, and so she’s really excited about maybe being able to take her whole troop of about 15 Girl Scouts somewhere, on a trip,” Potterf said.

Police are investigating the shooting but have no suspects and nothing new to report since Tuesday, Sgt. Kendale Adams said Thursday. According to a police report, the shots may have been fired from a sport-utility vehicle, sending bullets toward Sinai and her 8-year-old sister, Erica, as they stood on their front porch, waiting for their mom to bundle up another sibling for the trip to the Scouts meeting.

Shanita Miller’s boyfriend, 31-year-old Mark Chander, said he and his family have no idea who would target them.

“When (Sinai) got home from the hospital, she asked me, ‘Why did this happen to me? Did I do something wrong?’ I didn’t have an answer for her because she didn’t do anything wrong,” he said.

“She needs all the hugs, all the kisses, all the sweet names that you can say to her — and all the comfort,” he said. “Whoever did this needs to come forward. They hit an innocent child and they should feel some guilt.”

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Community

Four Candidates, Including Incumbent Barbara Lee, Qualify for Oakland Mayor’s Race

POST NEWS GROUP — Four candidates, including incumbent Mayor Barbara Lee, filed their papers to run for office by last Friday’s deadline, and the City Clerk issued a list this week of those who are qualified to run.

Published

15 hours ago

August 15, 2026

bpusa-syndication

View of downtown Oakland, California and City Hall. iStock photo.

By Post Staff

The four mayoral candidates who will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot are:

Brenda Grisham. A business owner in East Oakland and public safety advocate, Grisham led the successful recall campaign against Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price. As part of her platform, she pledges to work with local, state, and federal partners to secure stricter gun control measures and investments in community violence intervention programs.

Barbara Lee. A former congressional representative and state Assembly member, Lee was elected by voters in a special election last year for a two-year term. Now running for a four-year term, she points out that her administration achieved major successes in addressing some of the city’s major challenges, including balancing the city budget, dramatically reducing crime, and making significant inroads into homelessness and illegal dumping.

Mindy Pechenuk. An educator and activist, Pechenuk is a registered Republican and supporter of Lyndon LaRouche, who has been described by observers as a conspiracy theorist and cult leader. She ran unsuccessfully for mayor in last year’s special election and for the at-large council seat in 2024. She seeks to end Oakland’s police commission and MACRO and invest in more police while launching a new local war on drugs.

Julius Robinson. While little information is available so far about Robinson, he was quoted in a KTVU story about Thao’s recall, stating that people in Oakland want to come together as a community but lack infrastructure and leadership.

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Black History

Oakland Observes Black August with Block Parties, Film Showings, Workshops

POST NEWS GROUP — Beginning in 1979 in San Quentin State Prison, the Black Guerrilla Family called for the remembrance of political prisoner George Jackson and his brother Jonathan Jackson who were assassinated in the early 1970s. George Jackson was considered a political prisoner in that it was the anti-Black justice system that led to his incarceration for armed robbery with a sentence of one year-to-life in 1960.

Published

17 hours ago

August 15, 2026

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George Jackson wrote two books: “Soledad Brother,” and “Blood in My Eye” before her was killed in an attempt to escape prison on Aug. 21, 1971.

By Jana Lang, Propel Youth Reporter

Study. Train. Fast. Fight.

These are the four tenets of Black August, a month dedicated to commemorating the sacrifices of political prisoners and Black revolutionaries in the struggle for Black liberation.

Observers are urged to study the history of the Black struggle for freedom, train their bodies for health and self-defense, fast to cleanse the mind, body, and spirit, and fight ongoing oppression alongside their communities and local political organizations.

Beginning in 1979 in San Quentin State Prison, the Black Guerrilla Family called for the remembrance of political prisoner George Jackson and his brother Jonathan Jackson who were assassinated in the early 1970s. George Jackson was considered a political prisoner in that it was the anti-Black justice system that led to his incarceration for armed robbery with a sentence of one year-to-life in 1960.

While in prison, George befriended fellow prisoner W.L. Nolen, who introduced him to the works of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong, and Frantz Fanon. This radicalization coupled with his experiences of violence while imprisoned led to him writing and publishing two books, “Soledad Brother” (1970), and “Blood in my Eye” (1972). In January of 1970, George and two other prisoners were charged with murdering a corrections officer at Soledad State Prison in Monterey County.

On Aug. 7, 1970, Jonathan Jackson burst into a Marin County courtroom armed with a shotgun to demand the freedom of the Soledad Brothers. He, along with the inmates he freed, was shot and killed while driving away. This involved one of the Black Panther Party’s most notable associates, Angela Davis, because the shotgun was registered in her name. She was later acquitted of charges of conspiracy, kidnapping, and murder in 1972.

On Aug. 21, 1971, George Jackson was assassinated by a corrections officer after attempting to escape and free other inmates. As a result, there were uprisings and protests within prisons all over the country that year, calling forth resistance against racial oppression and mass incarceration.

Since its outset, Black August has evolved across the country, taking many forms to honor this history and embody the four tenets.

In Oakland, the upcoming Black August Experience, hosted by Youth Alive! and the East Oakland Boxing Association (EOBA), is a free, family-friendly event celebrating the legacy of Black August. Activities include free food and drinks, a kids’ activity zone, interactive workshops, live cooking and boxing demonstrations, and more.

Happening on Aug. 21 from 4-8 p.m. at the EOBA Patio, Carolyn Flynn, director of administration at EOBA, said the event, in its second year, will be an opportunity to engage with people in person through food, shared space, and education.

“We do regular classes in education, and those are ongoing programs that we offer, but we wanted to have [an opportunity] for our neighbors to utilize this space.” Combined with Youth Alive’s work in community violence prevention and youth leadership, this event surely aims to bring the Oakland community together to capture what Black August means today.

Here are additional Black August events happening in Oakland:

Forum and Community Discussion hosted by the Oakland Liberation Center, 1499 Fruitvale Ave., Aug. 14, 7 p.m.

“George Jackson/San Quentin” Screening hosted by Nostalgic for Nothing Cinema at Moments Co-Op, 410 13th St., Aug. 16, doors at 6 p.m., show at 6:30 p.m. (Masks required and scent-free)

Commemorating the Struggle, Building the Altar for Liberation: Black August at Bandung Books, 2269 International Blvd., Aug. 23rd, 1-5 p.m.

Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS), will host “Black August: The Arc of Liberation” at Oakland City Hall on Sat. Aug. 29, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.