11-year-old boy dies, several injured after man opened fire at Cincinnati crowd

Following a drive-by shooting in Cincinnati that left an 11-year-old boy dead and four other children and an adult injured, US officials are expressing shock and outrage. The shooting incident involved more than a hundred bullets fired into a crowd of children.

Just before 9:30 p.m. on Friday on the city’s West End, Terri Theetge, the chief of police, told reporters that someone inside a sedan had fired 22 rounds rapidly into a group of children. The deceased boy, three other boys, ages 12, 13, and 15, as well as a 15-year-old girl, were struck, along with a 53-year-old woman. One victim was still in stable condition at the hospital.

The shooting, according to Mayor Aftab Pureval, happened in a busy neighborhood close to a park and a historic elementary school. He called it sickening and unimaginable.

According to Pureval, twenty-two rounds were fired. Twenty-two rounds into a swarm of children in a split second. Too late to reply. Too late to respond.

According to Pureval, the neighborhood is going through unspeakable trauma. He said that although people were too afraid to go outside, they were shouting messages of love and support to each other through open windows on Saturday and Sunday morning.

The parents, and the kids themselves we talked to, don’t feel safe, and I frankly can’t blame them, he said.

Theetge said it was too early to say whether the shooting was random or targeted, and she declined to discuss other aspects of the investigation. She urged whoever was responsible to turn themselves in, vowing we will find you and we will bring you to justice.

Isaac Davis, the father of the slain child, was at the news conference along with the boy’s mother and grandmother and also urged whoever was responsible to come forward.

When will this stop? Will this ever stop?” Davis asked. How many people have to bury their kids, their babies, their loved ones?

The mayor said 40% of the illegal weapons on the city’s streets were stolen from cars, and he and the city manager urged gun owners to lock up their weapons. He decried both the ubiquity of guns and the inability to resolve differences peacefully”.

(with inputs from agencies)