Authorities are hunting for suspects after a 12-year-old boy was killed and a 14-year-old girl was injured in a drive-by shooting as they walked in a residential Long Beach neighborhood late Tuesday .
According to the Long Beach Police Department, at least two gunmen opened fire from an unidentified vehicle at children traveling with a 13-year-old girl and were not injured. Investigators did not know how many gunmen were involved in total or how many rounds were fired.
“The shooting took place [Tuesday night] is wreaking havoc,” Long Beach Sheriff Wally Hebeish said in a statement on Wednesday. “One boy’s life was cut short as a result of an unforgivable act of gun violence.”
The boy who was killed was identified on Wednesday as a Long Beach resident Eric Gregory Brown III. He was shot in the upper body, police said.
Officer Richard Mejia, a spokesman for the Long Beach Police Department, said the exact circumstances leading up to the shooting are unknown and are still being investigated, but after an unidentified vehicle stopped in place. three children on Tuesday night, there was a “war of words”. by the shooting.
Mejia said there was at least one vehicle nearby with impact marks and “bullet casings found everywhere. [crime] context.”
Mejia said officers arrived on the scene shortly after 11:30 p.m. and took life-saving measures before firefighters arrived to help.
Eric and the unidentified girl who were shot were taken to a nearby hospital, where Eric died from his injuries. The girl who was shot in the leg was treated for her non-life-threatening injuries.
Several members of the Long Beach City Council and the mayor’s office attended the memorial service Wednesday night along with Eric’s mother, Angela Washington.
“We need our children to feel safe in our city,” Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson tweeted. “We must never accept this as normal. We must protect and prioritize our youth.”
Councilman Suely Saro, who was at Wednesday’s memorial service, called the killing “latest act of senseless gun violence.”
On a GoFundMe The page was set up for Eric’s funeral, the Jackson High School student listed as the second of five children.
