Los Angeles [US], November 12: A thorough canvass of the area around a drive-by shooting, which killed a 9-month-old boy on Wednesday in Merced, a city in central California, is still going on for witnesses and video surveillance, with officials urging anyone with any relevant information to contact police.
The baby Darius King Grigsby's family is also begging anyone who has information about the shooting to help them get justice, reported local KFSN-TV.
On Thursday, a makeshift memorial in Merced, about 450 km north of Los Angeles, went from a single teddy bear to a collection of toys, as people came to extend their condolences, another California news outlet KRON-TV reported.
Grigsby was being pushed in a stroller on Wednesday noon by his mother who was walking down the street with her boyfriend in Merced, when a vehicle drove by and one of the occupants opened fire, which struck Grigsby and killed him at the scene, the Merced Police Department said in a statement on Facebook.
"One of the adults that was with the baby was probably the intended target but we just don't know that at this point. We're still trying to piece it together," said Joey Perez with the department, as reported by KRON-TV.
The Merced Police Department's Facebook page has seen more than 500 comments expressing condolences to the victim and his family in two days.
"I am sad but also angry because this should never ever happen. What's wrong with city, country that someone can just shoot with no regard to who is in the way!" wrote a mourner Aurora Barboza.
As of Friday, 280 children aged 0-11 and 1,170 teens aged 12-17 have been killed in gun violence across the United States in 2022, according to the nonprofit group Gun Violence Archive.
In 2020, gun violence overtook car accidents to become the No. 1 cause of death for children and adolescents in the country.
Source: Xinhua