Boy, 6, shot dead while watching San Francisco fireworks during bloody weekend that saw dozens shot across US
A SIX-year-old boy was shot dead while watching San Francisco fireworks during a bloody 4th of July weekend that saw a spate of shootings throughout the US.
The young boy, who has been identified by family as Jace Young, was at a friend’s house for a birthday party in the Bayview neighborhood on Saturday night.
Young stepped outside with his older sister around at 10.30 pm to watch the fireworks, KTVU reports.
Just 15 minutes after, authorities received a shooting call on the 1200 block of Ingalls Street.
When they arrived, Young was found suffering from a gunshot wound.
He was quickly rushed to the nearby hospital and later he succumbed to his injuries.
An adult man, not known to the family and yet been identified, was also reportedly found shot nearby.
Police said the man’s wounds were non-life-threatening.
The Young family believes that 6-year-old was an innocent bystander caught up in gun violence.
No arrests have been made and there was no suspect description available. ABC7 reports.
San Francisco Chief of Police Willaim Scott said the investigating is ongoing while calling the shooting “unacceptable”.
“Senseless violence like this that could so tragically claim the life of a small child is unacceptable in our City.”
He continued: “the San Francisco Police Department stands with the Bayview Hunter’s Point community in its determination to bring the perpetrator or perpetrators to justice,” Chief Scott said.
What’s more, Supervisor Shumann Walton, who oversees where the shooting happened, said the focus should be getting guns off the street.
“This is beyond tragic,” Walton told local ABC 7 and said that “the one thing we do know is, it was a bullet that took this young man’s life and we have to do what we can to get bullets and guns off the streets and out of our communities.”
Over the weekend, Atlanta was among other US cities that was left reeling over the Fourth of July violence.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms called for justice after Secoriea Turner, an eight-year-old girl, was killed when her mother drove through an illegal barricade set up by activists near where Rayshard Brooks was shot.
The following evening a 53-year-old man was shot dead near the burned down Wendy’s restaurant.
In an emotional news conference, Bottoms, who has been touted as a potential running mate for Joe Biden’s November’s presidential election bid, declared “enough is enough”.
Bottoms said: “We have talked about this movement that is happening across America at this moment in time when we have the ears and the interest of people across this country and across this globe who are saying they want to see change.
“We’re fighting the enemy within when we are shooting each other up in our streets.
“You shot and killed a baby.
The mayor said she received information barriers were up less than an hour before the girl was shot dead.
On Sunday, President Trump tweeted that the federal government is “ready to intervene” as thee bloody holiday weekend a 140% spike in gun crime in New York and saw at least 63 injured in Chicago.
At least 41 people were injured and at least nine killed in a spate of shootings in the Big Apple across the holiday weekend.
Shootings have reportedly doubled every week for the last three weeks and in the last seven days, the city has experienced a 142% surge in shootings compared to the same period last year.
Trump criticized de Blasio as well as Governor Andrew Cuomo, telling the pair that he is “ready to intervene” if required.
“Shootings up significantly in NYC where people are demanding [Andrew Cuomo] and [Mayor Bill de Blasio] act now,” the President tweeted.
“Federal government ready, willing and able to help, if asked.”
Over in Chicago, the city witnessed one of the bloodiest holiday weekends in memory as 14 people were fatally shot — including a 7-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy — and 63 were more wounded.
This comes despite the Chicago Police Department deploying 1,200 additional officers over the weekend with the intention of reducing violence.
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Omaha, Cleveland and several other cities were also rocked by violence amid the holiday revelry.
Omaha, Nebraska, had at least six separate shootings with eight people wounded, KPTM said.
Cleveland Police said officers responded to 22 shootings, three of which were homicides, one hit-skip, and one stabbing, according to media outlet WOIO.