Darius Grigsby 9 month old boy in stroller shot dead in drive by shooting in Merced, California as cops have yet to name any suspects or make any arrests.
A 9-month-old baby boy in a stroller was killed while being pushed by his mother along a California street when a gunman opened fire from a car and struck the infant in a drive by shooting, cops said.
The child’s mom was out walking with her boyfriend and son at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday in Merced when bullets rang out from a passing car, the Merced Police Department said in a statement.
The mom picked up her son, Darius Grigsby, and ran to a McDonald’s a block away to get help.
Workers at the fast food chain said the distressed mom initially thought her son was choking after being scared by the sound of gunfire, only to realize that a bullet had struck the baby, KMPH reported.
‘Me and another manager ran up to her, he called 911 and I placed my hand on the baby and I saw the blood on the mom’s shirt,’ a McDonald’s employee recalled.
Missed target?
The infant was pronounced dead at the McDonald’s despite paramedics’ life-saving efforts.
Police said they do not believe the 9-month-old baby was the gunman’s intended target.
‘We don’t know what the motive is,’ Lt. Joseph Perez told ABC30. ‘At this point, it’s possible that maybe one of the parents was a possible target and the child was just tragically caught in the crossfire.’
It remained unclear why the gunman may have been aiming for either the mother or her boyfriend and their relationship, if any to the shooter.
During a vigil at the scene of the shooting Thursday, Darius’ great-aunt said his devastated mother was struggling to come to terms with what had happened.
‘She is taking it very hard,’ Elena Perez told ABC30. ‘She is still in denial. She is still thinking that it’s not true.’
Darius’ aunt Andrea Bolanos described her nephew as a cheerful baby who was always smiling.
‘He didn’t deserve to go like this, especially this soon,’ she said in a statement. ‘He was just starting to enjoy food and being mobile.’
As of Friday morning, no suspects have been named and no arrests have been made.
