MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) — A Milwaukee man is on the run after shooting his girlfriend at least 14 times in front of their children.
Not only did this mother survive, she asked to share her story on our Milwaukee Crime Stoppers segment to help catch him.
The whole shooting was caught on video, which we are about to show you at the victim’s urging.
*We want to warn you, it’s graphic and heartbreaking.*
When we showed Nikeya Shumake surveillance video of the day her boyfriend shot her at least 14 times in front of their three children, she was quiet at first, watching intently as he chased her out of her minivan after an argument.
He ran her down, shooting her until she falls to the ground. As she’s laying there, he continues to shoot her again and again. But it was when her 12-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son get out of the car to stop their dad from killing her that Nikeya totally broke down.
Retraumatized, her tears fell, leg shaking uncontrollably.
We asked if she wanted to stop the interview, but she said no. Because Nikeya Shumake wants you to see what happened to her from beginning to end.
“I would like the whole video to be played so people can understand from my point of view, and from my kids’ point of view. So they can actually see how we were feeling during that moment,” she said. “And to know that someone they call dad, someone we once loved, to turn his back on us.”
Watch as Askia Strong keeps shooting while she’s on the ground, turns to run away, then comes back and shoots several more times to finish the job.
“He just kept shooting, and I fell to the ground and laid there and let him keep shooting until he was done….after a while your body gets numb to it,” she said.
Numb, bleeding, she lays on the ground while he runs down the alley. And after being shot in the head, stomach, arms and legs at close range, Nikeya Shumake gets up.
“When I opened my eyes and I seen my baby, my eyes were able to focus. So I just got up a little bit and was like oh, I can stand up, and then just stood up all the way. Then I grabbed my babies, I seen the lady, she was just sitting there watching and I opened her door, pushed her laundry over and was like can you please just take me?”
“What do you want to say to people who see this?” CBS 58’s Amanda Porterfield asked.
“Just turn him in,” Shumake said.
After fleeing down the alley near S. 24th and W. Lapham that day, on July 23, 32-year-old Askia Strong hasn’t been caught and is now wanted for attempted murder.
Milwaukee police believe Strong is hiding with friends and family in either Wisconsin, Illinois or Indiana.
Nikeya says the two have been dating for 17 years, since they were 15 years old. He was in and out of jail and their kids, Jermiyah, Askia Jr. and Zamiyah have witnessed him abuse her for the last several years.
“He pulled a gun out before that but he didn’t use it. But he was just calling me stupid and stuff,” she said.
Shumake says days before the shooting, the abuse got worse, because she finally broke up with him for good.
“I made life easy for him, that he couldn’t accept that life was about to get hard. I wanted me. I didn’t want to always think what he want. If I am doing the right thing or making him happy, I want to think about me and my feelings.”
Nikeya could have been part of a growing number of domestic violence victims being killed in Wisconsin.
According to the latest numbers from End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin, there were 80 total domestic violence homicides in the state last year. Nearly a third of those were in Milwaukee. This year, there have been 19 domestic violence homicides in the city already. Many of them Black women.
“Some girls don’t even feel like they in domestic violence because they’re like ‘I fight back, I stand up for myself,’ or they are just giving themselves so many reasons why they are not going through domestic violence. But if they really step back and look, domestic violence comes in so many different forms.”
Since the shooting, Nikeya says Askia Strong has been harassing her through social media from wherever he is. But she’s not afraid.
“Why would I live in fear? God don’t want you to live in fear. He didn’t let me live to live in fear.”
Nikeya says her mission is to keep protecting her children from Askia Strong and to help other women in abusive relationships get on their feet and out before it’s too late.
“The moment I got up off that ground I was a hero. It was victory for me from that point on,” she said.
If you are harboring Askia Strong, know anyone who is hiding him or have information about where he may be, please call Milwaukee Crime Stoppers at 414-224-8477. You can also use the P3 Tips app. Either way, submitting your tip won’t get you in trouble, no one will know who you are. It’s anonymous, and if your tip leads to an arrest, you get a cash reward.
