Authorities are searching 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.
At least two gunmen opened fire from an unknown vehicle at the children, who were with a 13-year-old girl who was uninjured, according to the Long Beach Police Department. Investigators are not sure how many total shooters were involved or how many rounds were fired.
“The shooting that took place [Tuesday night] is devastating,” Long Beach Police Chief Wally Hebeish said in a statement Wednesday. “A young boy’s life has been cut short due to an intolerable act of gun violence.”
The boy who was killed was identified Wednesday as Long Beach resident Eric Gregory Brown III. He was shot in the upper body, police said.
The exact circumstances that led to the shooting were unknown and still under investigation, said Officer Richard Mejia, spokesperson for the Long Beach Police Department, but after an unidentified vehicle pulled up to the three children Tuesday night, “a verbal interaction” occurred, followed by the shooting.
There were strike marks on at least one nearby vehicle, Mejia said, and “bullet casings were found throughout the [crime] scene.”
Officers arrived at the scene shortly after 11:30 p.m. and administered life-saving measures before firefighters helped, Mejia said.
Eric and the unidentified girl who was shot were rushed to a nearby hospital, where Eric died of his injuries. The girl, who was shot in the leg, was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
A few members of the Long Beach City Council and the mayor’s office attended a memorial Wednesday evening 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.”
Councilmember Suely Saro, who was at Wednesday’s memorial, called the killing the “latest act of senseless gun violence.”
On a GoFundMe page established for Eric’s funeral, the Jackson Middle School student was listed as the second of five children.
This story originally appeared on LA Times
