Ten-year-old Kanasha Stovall stayed close to her grandmother Wednesday and kept a tight hold on her teddy bear.
Hours earlier, her mother, Tiffany Farral, 28, and Farral's boyfriend, Donsha Jones, 26, were fatally shot as they slept in their bed. Kanasha and her younger sister and brother were sleeping in adjacent rooms.
Kanasha said she did not hear the gunshots but heard her mother cry out and ran to help her. Her siblings didn't wake up.
In a 911 call placed at 12:06 a.m., Farral and her daughter alternately pleaded for help.
First the mother: "Help me! Somebody shot me!"
After a moment, Kanasha got on the line and pleaded calmly for an ambulance. "Could you please come down here. My mama and my stepdad just got shot. . . . Could you please hurry up, because I'm very nervous."
Jones was pronounced dead at the scene of multiple gunshot wounds. Farral, who also was shot multiple times, died in surgery at Methodist Hospital.
Police investigators said they had no motive in the killings, though they said the crime did not appear to be related to a robbery. Police said they think the front door was forced open and the assailant or assailants marched directly to the couple's bedroom.
The shootings occurred in a house in Stringtown, an older, hardscrabble neighborhood on the Near Westside where "Beware of the Dog" signs abound. Since Jan. 1, four assaults, a rape, an attempted rape and a strong-armed robbery have occurred within a half-mile radius of Wednesday's shooting, according to police records.
Farral and Jones were lifelong Westsiders. Farral had gone to Ben Davis High School, Jones to Northwest. She recently began working as a cashier at the Kroger grocery store in Speedway. He had worked at a Hardee's restaurant.
The couple had been together two years and had rented the small house in the 200 block of Reisner Street about a month ago.
Their neighbors said they hadn't had time to get to know them.
A search of Indianapolis police files revealed Jones had been arrested 10 times since 2000, six times on charges of battery, twice on charges of drug possession, once on a charge of criminal confinement and once in an auto theft case.
In May, Farral told police Jones had assaulted her. She said he flipped his cigarette at her and choked her. She said he'd never been violent with her before.
Jones' only conviction was for battery in 2004. Details on that case were unavailable Wednesday.
After the police and ambulance arrived at the house, Kanasha called her grandmother, Valerie Gilbert, who came for the children.
Gilbert, 48, said she plans to raise Kanasha; her sister, Kania, 6; and her brother, Darmon, 4. Her apartment was crowded but quiet Wednesday, as family members arrived to lend support to one another. An episode of the "Andy Griffith Show" played on the television with the volume turned down.
"Tiffany was a beautiful girl, a lovable person," said her uncle, Howard Farral.
Cousins and aunts sat by in silence. The children were still.
"The younger ones haven't said much," said Gilbert, "but the oldest is having it rough."
Somebody poured Kanasha a bowl of cereal, but she didn't eat. She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue.