In what Southern California authorities termed a “unimaginable” road rage incident involving two suspects who allegedly pursued the victim’s family and opened fire on their vehicle, a 4-year-old boy was mortally shot in front of his parents.
The fatal shooting occurred in Los Angeles County on Friday night, after the assailants purportedly severed the family’s vehicle on a Lancaster highway, as reported by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
“It is incomprehensible.” This might have been any of our households. “It could have been any of us,” R. Rex Parris, the mayor of Lancaster. A man, 29, and a woman, 27, were detained and booked at the Los Angeles County Jail on suspicion of murder, according to a statement released by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to ABC News on Sunday. The identities of the suspects were not disclosed immediately.
The sheriff’s department reports that the violence occurred on Friday at approximately 7:30 p.m. local time while the family of the victim was driving on the Sierra Highway in Lancaster and confronted the suspects in traffic.
“During the incident, the suspect driver cut them off and then began following them through several surface streets,” LASD reported. “While being pursued by the suspects, the victim driver slowed his vehicle, at which time the suspect driver pulled up along the passenger side of the victim’s car and began shooting.”Authorities stated that a bullet fired into the family vehicle struck the infant in the backseat, who was in the torso.
The sheriff’s statement reads, “His parents, who were in the vehicle at the time, transported him immediately to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.”
The identity of the child is being withheld pending the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s autopsy.
The parents of the boy were not injured. Parris claims that within hours, investigators were able to identify and locate the perpetrators by utilizing crime-fighting technology that was implemented by the city of Lancaster earlier this year.
The suspects’ vehicle was identified by the city’s Flock Safety automated license plate recognition technology, which Parris stated is designed to deter criminal activity by notifying law enforcement when a stolen or wanted vehicle enters city limits, according to detectives.”We know where they’ve been, we know where they’re going, so when a crime is committed, we can go back in time and find out where they are,” Parris explained to KABC.
Sunday, as the investigation continued, the sheriff’s office requested that any individuals with relevant information contact its homicide bureau at (323) 890-5500.
The incident occurred in the United States, where a child lost their life to gunfire twice in the past two days, as reported by the Gun Violence Archive. This online platform monitors shooting incidents across the country. Police report that a neonate was fatally shot at a residence in Memphis, Tennessee, on Saturday.
Early Saturday morning, a 1-year-old infant was fatally shot at a residence in Memphis, Tennessee, according to police who spoke to the Memphis ABC affiliate WATN.
The Memphis Police Department reports that upon receiving an emergency contact from a residence in the Frayser neighbourhood of north Memphis, officers discovered a baby inside that was fatally wounded. The infant subsequently passed away at the hospital, according to police.
The circumstances surrounding the incident are still being investigated, and the MPD has not released any additional information. Shootings have claimed the lives of at least 284 minors younger than eleven years old this year, as reported by the Gun Violence Archive.
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