1 + 78 = grief for life

Can you imagine the final minutes of a life that had barely begun? What could Ny-Asia Tillmon, a toddler who had just turned 1, have been thinking as three people burst into her home in Chesapeake one Saturday afternoon? Can a baby even comprehend such a menace?

"Who are they? Where's Grandma?"

Ny-Asia will never be able to tell us what happened. The attackers in the November 2007 home invasion in South Norfolk fired round after round after round, littering the first-floor apartment with .40-caliber casings. Grandma Mary Arnold tried to protect her, but Ny-Asia suffered a fatal bullet wound in the head. Arnold was shot in the hand while cradling Ny-Asia's head. Ny-Asia's uncle was wounded in the arm, but he was able to return fire from a handgun and force the attackers to flee.

For their part in the invasion and shootout, cousins Shawn Sir Charles Ward, 23, and Julian "Ramel" Barksdale, 21, will each serve 78 years in prison. They were sentenced late last month in Chesapeake Circuit Court on second-degree murder, firearms and other charges. A third suspect was never identified.

The gunmen were particularly callous, particularly reckless. One other child and several adults also were in the home. It's amazing that in the hail of bullets, no one else was injured.

During the 2008 trial, prosecutor D.J. Hansen noted, "We may never know why " the gunmen targeted this particular house.

This much is certain: A baby girl is dead. Two people were wounded. Others will carry with them the emotional trauma of the attack for the rest of their lives.

And two men, barely adults, will probably spend the rest of their lives in prison for the carnage they unleashed. They've caused untold grief to Ny-Asia's family, and their own.

They'll have a long time to think about the life they snuffed out, and the lives they might have led, had they considered the consequences before firing their weapons.