Family mourns murdered grandmother on south side

MILWAUKEE -- A family came back to a south side neighborhood with tears in their eyes Tuesday morning, looking to gather what's left of their murdered grandmother's possessions.



It's a scene and story becoming all to common in Milwaukee and one they worry might only get worse.



\"Whenever you needed her, grandma was there,\" granddaughter Vanessa Perez said.  \"Now she's not here no more.\"



Perez fought back tears talking about her grandmother, Gloria Zuniga. The 59-year-old woman was shot in her home near 26th and Mitchell around 9 p.m. Monday.



\"I came over here and everything was blocked off,\" Perez said.  \"I figured it was her.  Because it had to be in  the alley and she lives in that alley.\"



The side of the house shows more than 25 bullet holes through Zuniga's bedroom wall.  Perez says other adults lived with her grandma, but no one else was hurt.



\"She was a good person, why her,\" Perez said.  \"Why her, really?  Like out of all people, why her?  She didn't deserve it.\"



Milwaukee police tell us the the shots came from an ongoing gang dispute.  They currently don't have anyone in custody.



\"You've gotta ask yourself, 'What the hell is going on in this city,\" Alderman Bob Donovan said.



Donovan lives just two blocks away from the scene.  Milwaukee Police say this was the 93rd homicide of 2013.  Last year there were 91 total.

 

\"The decent people won't even drive in, let alone shop or live or open up a business,\" Donovan said.  \"It's a damn shame and something needs to be done.\"



Donovan says MPD is short 150 officers and has 90 detective vacancies.  Those are problems the 8th district representative says Mayor Barrett needs to fix.



\"If we can find money for streetcars, if we can find money for all the garbage that he proposes and not take care of safety first, this city is screwed, unfortunately,\" Donovan said.



Perez says her grandma moved to the south side because it was safer, but now she fears nowhere is safe.

 

\"I just hope the people who did it rot because they took away somebody special from me,\" Perez said.  \"I can't get her back.\"



Alderman Donovan tells CBS-58 News he plans to draft and introduce, what he calls, a common sense plan for public safety within a month.