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Police: 9-year-old Shot During Baltimore Violence Was Not The Target

BALTIMORE (WJZ)--A 9-year-old is recovering after being shot Memorial Day night.

The child was not the intended target, but unintentionally one of the victims in the growing number of shootings in the city.

Marcus Washington talks to a man who was with the boy at the time of the shooting.

Robert Hall heard the gun shots and says he is outraged to see the recent increased gun violence in the city land on his front steps.

This time, the bloody victim is his son's friend Eli.

"Eli ran across the street, he was shot, sat him down, got a towel, comforted him until the ambulance came," said Hall.

Neighbors tell us the 9-year-old who suffered the non-fatal shooting Memorial Day night on Arunah Ave. in West Baltimore is a good kid who was just playing outside in his neighborhood.

Hall says, "He was screaming, 'It hurt, it hurt, it hurt. I'm hit, I'm hit,' and I'm thinking in my mind, normally you hear someone say hit you think this of war, but for a child to say, it's unacceptable man."

Police tells WJZ Eli was not the intended target in this shooting, just an innocent kid caught in the crossfire.

People living around here know it could have been anyone.

"I didn't actually come out here and look at it until this morning, but my wife came to me and said, 'Baby when they were shooting last night, they grazed the car.'"

Robert says the closest park is three blocks away, but he wouldn't want his kids to go there alone; so like many kids right here in the neighborhood, one of their few options is to play basketball here on the sidewalk with the crate attached to the wall.

He says he knows what happened here Monday night could have easily been one of his two sons.

"I've lived in the city all my life and this is  not the first time I've seen someone get shot, but this is the first time I've seen a child shot and it happened right here. A child that my kids play with every day and it easily could have been one of my sons," Hall says.

"One week it's North Avenue, it's 10 minutes away from here; last summer a boy got shot here, they came back and shot him on that corner, this is just too much," said Harold Adams.

Robert says, "Because I love my neighborhood, I live my city. I don't want to abandon my city and go somewhere else; I want to stay here, but for the safety of my children and my wife, I'm going to talk to my wife today and find out what can we do to figure out a plan to move."

Robert tells me the 9-year-old's father says the child was set to have surgery this morning.

 

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