‘This mother here needs justice’: Reading mom of girl injured in Brookline shooting wants answers | Berks Regional News

READING, Pa. – Denise Soto, a Reading mother of four, has a memory that lives in Brookline Park.

“I could show you a tree right there that has bullet holes in it,” Soto said. “It’s at the height to hit a little 5-year-old.”

It’s a reminder of a nightmare that she and her daughter are still living with.

“Heartache, sorrow, a lot of grief,” Soto explained. “Pain, anger.” 

Now, she’s demanding answers.

“If somebody is watching this, and you know who the monster was that did this that not only destroyed my family but destroyed other families,” Soto said.

Her daughter, still on crutches, was one of the young people injured in a March shooting at Brookline Park that took the life of 18-year-old Governor Mifflin student Amiere Tyhee Bibbs.

“‘Cause my child is just an innocent bystander that was in the park,” Soto said. “Why did this happen? Why did this happen to any of the children that night?”

A memorial remains, put in place by Amiere’s mother, to remind people of what happened that night, in the hope that someone will come forward.

“Not allowing these senseless 16- to 20-year-old kids with guns that are still wet behind the ears, don’t even know what they’re doing with a gun, destroying our lives,” Soto said.

As the park has returned to normal, Soto’s life and the life of her daughter have not.

“You’re letting them run around the streets, giving them potential to do it all over again to somebody else,” Soto said. “Somebody needs to come forward ’cause this mother here needs justice.”

Anyone who has information regarding the fatal shooting at Brookline Park is asked to contact Crime Alert Berks County at 877.373.9913 or the Reading Police Department at 610.655.6116.