Girl slain at Oakland sleepover; 3 hurt

Bullet holes pierce the front door of the Oakland home where an 8-year-old girl was killed and three other people were hurt. Bullet holes pierce the front door of the Oakland home where an 8-year-old girl was killed and three other people were hurt. Photo: Lacy Atkins, The Chronicle Photo: Lacy Atkins, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Girl slain at Oakland sleepover; 3 hurt 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

Alaysha Carradine was a constant in her Oakland neighborhood, running, skipping and playing with dolls outside her friend's apartment. She had just finished the second grade and was enjoying her summer break.

Late Wednesday, while at a sleepover at her friend's place, someone rang the doorbell, then opened fire through the front door.

Alaysha, who was 8, died in the fusillade. Her 7-year-old friend was wounded, along with the friend's 4-year-old brother and the siblings' 63-year-old grandmother.

On Thursday, Alaysha's stepfather said he couldn't understand it. "I just want to know why you would shoot up a houseful of kids," said Jesse Fowler, 24. "Where do you get the satisfaction in that?"

No one has been arrested in the shooting, which happened at 11:18 p.m. at the first-floor apartment on the 3400 block of Wilson Avenue. All three of the wounded were hospitalized and were expected to survive.

The shooting rattled the normally quiet Dimond neighborhood above Interstate 580.

Khamel Hardin, 22, said Alaysha was a regular visitor in the apartment where he lives with his sister, his mother and the injured children, his niece and nephew.

Hardin said he was getting ready to go to sleep Wednesday night when five or six shots rang out.

"It was like it was a bomb, an explosion, just going off so quick," Hardin said as he used a spray bottle to try to clean up bloodstains.

Hardin said he had no idea why anyone would open fire at his home. He said he doubted he was the shooter's intended target.

"That's what I don't know. I don't need to know people like that," Hardin said.

Fowler said the shooters might have gotten the wrong address. "It could have been a mistaken house, you know, any kind of thing," he said. "I really don't have no clue."

Alaysha and the injured girl were child models and were to have met Thursday with a talent scout for a modeling agency, Fowler said.

Alaysha, whose nickname was "Ladybug," would have been a third-grader this fall at Fruitvale Elementary School in Oakland. She loved the Disney Channel and was a "phenomenal" reader, Fowler said.

"She was a breath of fresh air, one of the most smart, fun-loving, spunky kids you'd ever meet," he said. "Somebody that loves to help people, somebody that everybody loved, and everybody loved to be around her."

Fowler said he had to break the news by phone to Alaysha's mother, Chiquita Carradine, who was out of town.

Throughout the day, neighbors stopped by the apartment to light candles and deliver flowers, cards or teddy bears. Hugh Morrison drove from the Glenview neighborhood to drop off a bouquet of pink carnations.

"This could have happened to anyone," Morrison said. "We have a little boy about the same age. It could have happened to us."

A neighbor, Robbin, 48, who didn't want to give her last name, said her grandchildren played with the two wounded children. The grandmother invited her to attend church.

"They were so nice," she said. "We'd drive down the street and wave and say 'hello,' and she'd say, 'Bless you.' "

Robbin said she had faith police would solve the crime, but little confidence they could stop the violence plaguing Oakland.

"You know what they can do? They can bring out the National Guard and the Guardian Angels and get them on the streets and stop all this."