A 10 year-old boy was struck by stray gunfire and critically injured tonight as he sat in a car with his parents at a gas station in Long Beach. The shooting broke out between a group of males at around 8PM near the corner of Long Beach and Del Amo boulevards, said Nancy Pratt of the Long Beach Police Department.
The parents of the boy took him to the North Long Beach police substation at Atlantic Ave. and Del Amo Blvd.–about a quarter-mile away–where he was put in the back of a police cruiser and taken to Long Beach Memorial Hospital. He is listed as being in critical but stable condition, Pratt said.
A man who was also shot, suffering what are believed to be non-life-threatening injuries, took himself to a hospital, Pratt said. Conflicting reports have said that the other man shot was the boy’s father.
“At this point it appears he may also have been an innocent bystander, but the investigation is ongoing,” Pratt said.
The suspects in the shooting remained at large.
Anyone with information about the shooting is urged to call Long Beach police detectives at (562) 570-7250. Anonymous tips can be left at www.lacrimestoppers.org.
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