Family members remember a 15-year-old Lawrence girl who was recently shot and killed as loving, loyal and “a force to be reckoned with.”

Brianna “Bri” Higgins’ parents, siblings and loved ones continue to keep her name alive while they fight for justice. 

“She absolutely loved with her whole heart,” Bri’s aunt, Ashley Gray, said. “She celebrated your success, even if you didn’t celebrate your success. She did it for you. 

“Everybody calls themselves Brianna’s twin,” Gray continued. “I don’t know how many ‘twins’ she had, but she had that bond and connection with everybody.”

Bri, of the Potawatomi, Kickapoo and Red Lake Chippewa tribes, was born March 17, 2008 and raised in Lawrence, attending Deerfield Elementary School and then Billy Mills and Liberty Memorial Central middle schools before her freshman year at Lawrence High School. 

“My daughter loved the fact that she was Native American. And she loved her heritage,” said Bri’s mother, Vanessa Mahkuk.

Bri was shot on Jan. 19 in Olathe. She was taken to the hospital, where she died.

Combining her love for her family with softball, Bri would spend her days teaching her little sisters different types of moves and slides. She was an amazing softball player, according to her family. As a child, Bri played on multiple teams with her father, Leonard Higgins, as a coach. She kept up with competitive athletes and put up a good fight in the outfield, Leonard said.

Bri had aspirations for her future. She never forgot to tell her aunt Ashley whenever she was proud of something she did. She attended the Detention Day School program after a year and a half at LHS but was planning to enroll in the diploma completion program when she turned 16. 

Bri’s family felt like the school system failed her by not providing resources she needed. Mahkuk believes that the school would isolate Bri instead of working through her angst. 

But the problems Bri had as a teenager at school never made her stray from her end goal: to be successful and share it with the people she loved. She even had a job lined up for when she turned 16, according to her family. 

Mahkuk said that before Bri died, she was happy because colleges had started sending her letters. Mahkuk still receives college mail to this day, and it serves as a reminder of who her daughter could have become, given the opportunity to grow. 

‘Music is how we bonded’

When Bri wasn’t playing softball or planning her future, she had a routine of spending quality time with each of her family members.

Whether it was joking with her sisters, blasting loud music throughout the house with her mother, or leaving her room’s LED lights on during the daytime to annoy her father, Bri made sure everyone felt seen. 

Describing Bri’s personality, older sister Shyanna Toshavik laughed and said “‘Big’ is an understatement.” 

Bri would loudly crack jokes with her sisters every night when her mother would remind her to quiet down to avoid waking up her father. However, the hushing would only do so much to quiet Bri.

Leonard would wake up early in the morning from a spotty night of sleep because of his daughter’s bubbly humor and distinctive laugh.

The day that Bri died, she was making her rounds with her family when she ran to older sister Iona Wakole’s room.

“We listened to Keyshia Cole all morning that day and sang our hearts out,” Wakole said. “Music is how we bonded … We could sit in our room for hours, you know. Sometimes we wouldn’t even be talking, sometimes we’d just be sitting there just enjoying each other’s company. That was the type of bond me and my sister had.” 

Bri was in the middle of six sisters: Wakole, 23; Toshavik, 21; Gabriella, 19; Nessa, 9; and Lillian, 6. 

Bri also liked to occasionally run up the electric bill by not turning off her room lights.

“She was a big fan of leaving all her lights on. We’d be like ‘Bri, it’s daytime. Turn your lights off,’ and she would still leave them on,” Leonard said.

Today, Bri’s lights are still on. Vanessa and Leonard haven’t turned her lights off since the night she died. They said they will leave them on until they burn out and then replace them, because that’s what Bri would do. 

‘Save my spot up there’

When Bri stood next to her best friend’s grave at his funeral and said “Kamarjay, save my spot up there,” her family members didn’t think they were going to be burying her in that spot less than a year later.

Music got Bri through the loss of Kamarjay Shaw, who was shot and killed in March 2023. Kamarjay, 14, was a close friend of Bri’s and like a son to her family. Her grave is next to his.

Bri’s family admired how strong she stayed throughout the loss of her closest friend. They’ve compiled a playlist of more than 200 songs that Bri listened to in order to cope with her loss.

“A lot of the artists (on the playlist) I would never listen to before,” Gray said. “But now it’s like, well, if this is the music she used to get through one of the hardest moments in her life, I’m going to take a page out of Brianna’s book and listen to her playlist to get through this tragedy with her.” 

Reflecting on the playlist, Gray said how when she listened to the lyrics of the songs, she understood the pain Bri was going through. 

“It’s horrible. You listen to the lyrics and you can see why she listened to them because it is so real and speaks volumes to what these kids actually do feel,” Gray said. “We could all learn from these kids. I never had to be so strong in my life and the way these kids persevere through this shit — it’s amazing.”

‘This would have crushed my daughter’

In the five months following Bri’s death, two more of her closest friends were killed in unrelated shootings: Linford Garrett, 22, of Kansas City, and Isaiah Neal, 17, of Lawrence.

Garrett was killed in an overnight shooting Feb. 16 in Kansas City, Missouri.

Isaiah was killed in an overnight shooting on June 13, near 25th and Alabama streets in Lawrence. 

Bri, Kamarjay and Isaiah had been close friends since elementary school. 

“This would have crushed my daughter. She would have had a really tough time with this,” Mahkuk said. “(Isaiah) was with us every day and every day at the grave with Bri.”

After Bri’s death, Mahkuk and Leonard had begun viewing Isaiah as their own son; Isaiah began referring to Mahkuk and Leonard as “Mama Ness” and “Pops,” and even spent time playing with Bri’s little sisters.

“He was so good with the little ones. They’d be like ‘Bubba, will you go play basketball with me?’ and he’ll go down there and play basketball with them or even play catch at the grave,” Mahkuk said. 

Following Isaiah’s death, Bri’s younger sisters struggled with the repeated loss. 

“My little one took it really hard. She said, ‘That was my favorite Bubba,’ because I have all girls,” Mahkuk said.

Along with Bri, Isaiah’s presence is deeply missed in the household. 

“I appreciate him for making sure he got closer to our family after my sister passed,” Wakole said. “Because that was the bond that he had with my sister, so he made sure he shared that bond with us.”

‘It’s always butterflies and rainbows with her’

Bri’s family continues to see traits of her in her friends, sometimes even hearing Bri’s voice in other people. 

“There’s days when her friends will come over and visit and I swear I hear her laugh,” Wakole said. Gray believes “it’s part of who she is shining through everybody.”

Bri’s family members believe they feel her presence in different parts of their life, especially through their Native American heritage. For Mahkuk, she knows that when it thunders, that’s Bri expressing her frustration — specifically after the teen who had been charged with shooting and killing Kamarjay was acquitted.

“She’s thunderclan. She was letting the world know she was angry,” Mahkuk said. “The sky was so clear that day and all of a sudden after court it just started [storming]. We immediately went straight to the graveyard after that.”

Gray remembers her first birthday without Bri, when she wore Bri’s memorial shirt to the cemetery. She knew Bri joined her when she got swarmed by butterflies. 

“We went to the gravesite to be with her and I was attacked by butterflies,” Gray said. “The instant we got out there, I took a picture of us sitting there and there’s a rainbow in my picture … it’s always butterflies and rainbows with her.”

‘They had good hearts’

The community has been very supportive of the family, Mahkuk said. But Bri’s family asks that people start recognizing the realities of gun violence.

“I hope that people actually start opening up their eyes to gun violence. Things are really serious and it can happen to you,” Toshavik said.

Bri’s aunt, Mia Cadue, said she feels frustrated by the way that guns are glorified and asks parents to educate their kids on the truth behind unregulated weapons. 

Gray and Mahkuk said they feel frustrated with the stigma behind victims of gun violence and hope that people recognize the damage. 

“These kids had good intentions. They had good hearts,” Gray said. “And then these are the cards that they were dealt. It’s really unfortunate and heartbreaking.”

The teen who shot Bri has pleaded guilty to reckless second-degree murder and will be sentenced on Friday. But for Bri’s family, no sentence will mitigate her absence. 

“For them to say it’s an accident, my daughter’s gone for an accident? No,” Mahkuk said. “I don’t care what they say, you don’t do that, my daughter is gone forever.”

Natasha Torkzaban (she/her), a contributor to The Lawrence Times since June 2023, is a recent graduate of Lawrence High School. She was an editor-in-chief of The Free Press at Free State High School before becoming an editor-in-chief for The Budget at Lawrence High School for 2023-24. Read her work for the Times here.

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