Singer Janelle Monáe has been left to grief as her cousin, Natasha Hays, was shot to death while sleeping in her Kansas City, Kansas, home on Tuesday, Aug. 27.
Fox 4 KC reported that someone fired several shots into Hays' bedroom around 3:45 a.m. as her and her three children ages 18, 16 and 14 slept in the house. The bullets did not hit where the teens were sleeping, but the ones fired into their mother's room killed her. It was Hays' 14-year-old who found their mother's lifeless body after the gunfire had stopped.
Monáe took to social media Wednesday to share the tragic news.
“Gun violence has struck home,” she tweeted. “My beautiful 1st cousin was murdered. She was a mother of 3. Loved by her community. #NatashaHays #sayhername.”
She followed that up with several other tweets about the gun violence that took Hays' life.
Monáe's announcement about her cousin's murder comes one day after T-Pain announced via Twitter that his niece had been murdered. After Jovona Glover was stabbed to death outside her workplace, the rapper asked for help in finding the person responsible and police have now identified her killer as Tavon Jackson.
As for Monáe's cousin, the family believes they know who murdered her, however, there are no suspects in custody at this time.