A 4-year-old boy was in stable condition Saturday night after being hit by a stray bullet outside at a DeKalb County apartment complex.
The shooting happened at the Highlands of East Atlanta apartments at 2051 Flat Shoals Road SE, just north of I-20. Deonta Jackson, the boy’s uncle, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the child was visiting family at the complex and they were in the parking lot when shots rang out nearby.
Dekalb police said the child was riding a Big Wheel when he was hit.
“I pulled him into the truck,” Jackson said, “but by the time I pulled him in the truck it was too late (to protect him).”
It was unclear how many times the boy was shot. DeKalb police Maj. Antonio Catlin said, as of about 7:30 p.m., the boy was in stable condition.
Catlin said the incident began around 4:40 p.m., when an unknown individual fired multiple shots at two men in the area. The motive for the shooting was unclear, but Catlin said authorities were speaking with the men who were shot at.
No arrests had been made.
The incident adds to a recent rash of child shootings in an around metro Atlanta.
Four Georgia children have been killed in accidental shootings since Oct. 17, with the most recent coming a week ago. That’s when Atlanta police believe 6-year-old Ja’Mecca Smith found a loaded handgun tucked between couch cushions inside her family’s apartment and shot herself.
Her father, Demarqo Smith, was charged with involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct.
The other three incidents were in Paulding, Butts and Cobb counties.
The apartment complex where Saturday's shooting occurred was also the scene of the death of Troy Lee Robinson, who died Aug. 6 after being Tasered while fleeing police officers.
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