Kiana Brown.
A champion lay asleep when a bullet apparently meant for someone else ripped inside — and ended her life when it was just getting started.
Police offered that update Friday afternoon about the death of 19-year-old former Hillhouse basketball forward Kiana Brown.
Brown was unconscious when emergency responders responded to a 911 call at a Valley Street residence Wednesday at about 8:45 a.m. She was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
She used to live in the neighborhood and was back visiting.
She was also the life of the Hillhouse Lady Academics — when she helped them win a state championship, and when she returned to root them on after graduation.
At first investigators weren’t sure of the cause of death.
Then, “on Thursday, the medical examiner determined Ms. Brown died as the result of a gunshot wound to the head,” police spokesperson Capt. Anthony Duff reported in a release issued Friday afternoon.
After obtaining a search warrant of the residence, investigators “found evidence of gunfire in the roadway and discovered the residence had been struck by a gunshot. During a canvass of the neighborhood, officers learned several residents heard gunfire during the early morning hours on Wednesday,” Duff stated.
“Detectives believe the victim was fatally wounded as she slept.”
“We don’t think she was the intended target,” Asst. Chief Karl Jacobson told the Independent. It appears “someone either drove or walked by and shot inside the house.” There were other young people inside the house at the time.
At the time of her death, Kiana was working as a manager at a Cracker Barrel restaurant. She was no longer living in West Hills when she was shot, according to her cousin, Carlton Staggers. Her mother Karen (also a Hillhouse graduate) bought a home a few months ago and moved the family from the Valley Townhouses to the east side of town.
Kiana = “Good Kid”
During her senior year at Hillhouse, Brown was a member of the Hillhouse team that won the statewide girls’ championship.
Her coach, Catrina Hawley, recalled Friday how “Kiana pumped everyone up prior to the games. She led our team huddles and cheers. Always wanted everyone to do well. … She always danced, danced at practice, danced before games. You couldn’t help but join and smile.”
Brown “represented ‘House Family.’ She loved her ‘sisters,’ her teammates and her school,” Hawley said.
She played for the team for all four years at Hillhouse. As an alumna, she regularly attended games along with her mother.
Asst. Chief Jacobson spoke of how he “got a lot of calls from the community about how she was a good kid.”
Indeed, it seems those two words pop right into mind of anyone who knew her.
“She was a good kid,” said West Hill Alders Honda Smith. “She was a great athlete.”
“She was a very sweet young girl. Nice. She would do anything for anybody. She was quiet,” Staggers said. “She loved basketball; she played since fifth grade. She loved her family. She just was a really good kid.”
“A great young lady,” said neighborhood anti-violence worker Doug Bethea. “She was a sweetheart.”
“She worked hard academically to make something of herself. She was liked by her teammates,” remarked Hillhouse Principal Glenn Worthy. Worthy spoke about how incidents like this one are among the hardest moments of serving as an urban principal
Capt. Duff asked anyone with information about the case to contact police at 203 – 946-6304 or through the anonymous tip line, 1 – 866-888-TIPS (1 – 866-888‑8477). Or “text ‘NHPD’ plus your message to short code 274637 (CRIMES).”
Kiana, #4, with the state champion Lady Academics
