Qualeisha Barnes: Pregnant Nursing Student, Aspiring Rapper, Killed in SUV in Atlanta
Qualeisha Barnes, a 36-year-old nursing student and rapper known as Siditty, was known as a jokester among her family.
“She liked to laugh, and she was always cracking jokes on me,” her mother, Francine Lopez-Stewart, told local Atlanta media.
Barnes was fatally shot in Atlanta on the morning of Wednesday, April 8, while 14 weeks pregnant. Her death has devastated her family in Detroit, who remember her as a joyful, ambitious woman full of life and laughter who was working hard to build a brighter future for herself and her unborn child.
Barnes had been living in the Atlanta area for nearly a decade. She was balancing her studies to become a registered nurse—where she had recently made the dean’s list and had just two semesters left—with her passion for music as a rapper.
Her family described her as someone who lit up rooms, cracked jokes, and instantly won people over with her personality. “Generally, if you met LeLe, you instantly loved her and she was such a jokester.,” Lopez-Stewart, shared.
Her sister, Shatara Davis, spoke emotionally about their close bond: “I know her as Qualeisha. I know her as LeLe. I know her as we, in the same house, in the same bed. That’s what I know her as... That was my sister. That was my baby.”
Lopez-Stewart expressed the family’s immense pride in Barnes’s accomplishments. “She made the dean’s list. She had, like, two more semesters to go. She was so proud of herself, and we were so proud of her.”At the time of her death, Barnes was expecting a child. Her family is now mourning not only her but also the loss of that unborn baby.
Atlanta police responded to the scene around 1:23 a.m., where they found Barnes unresponsive in her vehicle with multiple gunshot wounds. She was pronounced dead at the scene. The Fulton County Medical Examiner confirmed her identity.
An investigation into the circumstances of her killing remains ongoing, and her family has voiced their desire for justice, believing more than one person may have been involved.
Barnes leaves behind loved ones who will remember her as a dedicated student, talented artist, devoted daughter and sister, and a soon-to-be mother whose bright spirit touched everyone around her. Her family’s grief highlights the profound hole her absence has created in their lives.
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