A 12-year-old girl seated at her dining room table was killed Friday by a stray bullet that ripped through the wall of her duplex on a south Minneapolis block being reclaimed from drug dealers.  
 
The girl, identified by her aunt as Tyesha Edwards, was seated next to her 8-year-old sister when she was struck, Police Chief Robert Olson said. The shooting occurred shortly after 3 p.m. in 3400 block of Chicago Av. S., on the border of the Central and Powderhorn Park neighborhoods. 
 
An eyewitness said several people came from between houses across Chicago Av. and fired before running away. However, there was nothing to indicate that the home where the girl lived was the intended target, said Inspector Sharon Lubinski, head of the Police Department's Third Precinct.  

Tyesha, a sixth-grader at Banneker Community School, was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.  

Nobody had been arrested late Friday.  

A clearly angered Olson decried the slaying, calling the killers cowards who tragically stole the life of another Minneapolis child.  

"This is just another case of somebody shooting at somebody else they're mad at," he said. "What we need is somebody who saw something to come forward and help us catch these killers."  

Lubinski didn't know how many shooters there were, but a caller to 911 said there were at least six shots fired. Sally Stromquist, who lives in the 3400 block of Columbus Av. S., one block to the west, said she had just gotten home from her 13-year-old son's science fair when she heard the shots.  

"I had just laid down and started reading a book when I heard the shots," she said. "I shot right out of my bed and called 911." 

Recalling the rhythm of the shots, Stromquist said she heard about five but couldn't tell exactly where they came from because the noise seemed to ricochet off the buildings.  

City Council Member Gary Schiff said that the community has worked hard to clean up the neighborhood, but that there is one property - not where the girl lived - that has continued to be a problem.  

"These are newer homes that used to be either empty lots or problem properties that were brought down with new homes being built," he said.  

Michele Wiegand, executive director of the Powderhorn Residents Group, said the block was "dubbed crack avenue" before redevelopment efforts led by the Residents Group began in 1994.  

There was a homicide at E. 38th St. and Columbus Av. S. last month, followed by a "running gun battle" along Columbus the next week, Lubinski said. A shot was recently fired through the window of an area business, she said.

Some of the shootings have been gang-related, but Lubinski said she didn't know whether any were related to Friday's shooting.

Jimmy John, who works at nearby Toni's Market and Deli, said investigators stopped in and took surveillance tapes.  

The girl's family is devastated, Lubinski said.  

"This is a horrible shock," she said. "This is a good, decent, hard-working family. It's just an unimaginable loss."  

As Barbara Winborn, the girl's aunt, approached the rear of the house shortly before 5 p.m., she was still stunned by what a sister told her about her niece.  

"Is it true? Is it true?" Winborn asked aloud to anyone close. "Does anyone know what happened?"