YONKERS, NY (CBSNewYork) – Police say a child was struck by a stray ball in Yonkers on Thursday and three teenagers are currently in custody.
Like all parents, Dina Ortiz was running home when she received the disturbing phone call about a child in her neighborhood in Yonkers who was shot dead.
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“My heart is broken because I have kids too,” she said to Cory James of CBS2. “It’s sad because it’s a little kid.”
Police say the 6-year-old boy was at a house near Ash and Walnut around 6 p.m.
Authorities said he was either on the porch or near the front door when a dangerous shootout surfaced and bullets blew up.
According to investigators, one of them hit the child in the right shoulder.
“As a parent, it’s despicable. It’s disgusting. It is terrible. That’s what we’re facing right now, “said Yonkers Police Commissioner John Mueller.
Yonkers officials say officials arrived within minutes and quickly went to work, tracking down three suspects, all under the age of 18 and all in different locations.
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“We also recovered two handguns … but we believe we are all in custody, and now it’s just a matter of clearing that up,” said Müller.
Meanwhile, Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano spoke out against the ongoing crime, saying the presence of local residents with law enforcement agencies will increase.
“Because the people who live here need to know that they can go outside their house and feel safe,” he said. “It should never have happened, and that’s the frustrating part because it happens too often.”
Some parents hope that even more security changes will be made before another child or someone else becomes a victim of gun violence.
“Maybe they can put cameras on this street because something is happening … in the summer,” Ortiz said.
A motive for the shooting is currently unknown.
The 6-year-old is recovering at a local hospital with his father and aunt by his side. We learned that his mother is out of the country.
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Let the child survive.
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