The life of 5-year-old Laylah Petersen of Milwaukee was ended abruptly by a bullet as she sat on her grandfather's lap, but her heart will continue to beat and keep alive another child. The Petersen family had announced on Saturday in a news conference that they will donate Laylah's heart to a needy child.

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"She is going to be in our hearts, like her little baby heart is going to be in somebody else's ... We know that as awful as this event has been, she is going to live on and save a life," AP quotes Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn.

Until the suspects in Laylah's death are arrested, Flynn said he would keep a picture of the little girl in his chest pocket, together with photos of his grandchildren. The police sought the public's help in identifying the gunmen. So far, no arrests had been made.

On Thursday evening, a bullet that came through the wall of the grandfather's house hit Laylah in the head and cost her life. Her grandparents, who raised Laylah, are not likely the targets of the gunmen, according to investigators, who think their house was "mistakenly targeted."

To help speed up identifying the culprits, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives offered a reward of up to $5,000 to anyone who could provide information that would lead to the arrest of the gunmen. The investigators found 12 casings on the crime scene and are studying if it all came from one or more handguns.

Laylah, who will be buried on Wednesday, added to the list of 11 Milwaukee children below 13 years old who died since January from gunshots. It is up 450 percent from just two incidents in 2013.

Organ donation has grown in acceptance globally because of its added benefit of "extending" the life of another person who died through harvested vital body parts given to other people, often unrelated to the deceased.

In October, an Iranian woman who was hanged for killing her rapist told her mother not to grieve but instead donate her organs. In 2003, a Filipina actress donated the eyes of her teenaged son to a blind housemaid after the son accidentally plunged to his death from the balcony of his condo unit.

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