Philadelphia: 11-Month-Old Passenger Fights for Life After Being Hit by 4 Stray Bullets

Victor Westerkamp
By Victor Westerkamp
October 20, 2019US News
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Philadelphia: 11-Month-Old Passenger Fights for Life After Being Hit by 4 Stray Bullets
File image of police tape (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

An 11-month-old baby was shot four times while seated in the back of a car in Philadelphia and is listed in extremely critical condition in the hospital.

The shooting happened in the Hunting Park area of northern Philadelphia at around 8 p.m. on Saturday when the child’s stepmother was driving near the 700 block of West Luzerne Street, CBS Local reported.

The woman heard gunshots but only realized her car and the baby were hit after she parked several blocks further away at the 4900 block of North Camec Street.

The woman immediately drove the child to the Einstein Medical Center. Later, the child was transferred to St. Christopher’s Hospital, where it remains in an extremely critical condition.

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An ambulance in a stock photo (Michael Gil via Wikimedia Commons)

The child, whose identity and gender have not been made public, suffered injuries to the back of its head, its chest, and the back of its buttocks, according to  ABC’s Philadelphia station WPVI.

“I can’t believe it,” Kim Cash, the woman’s neighbor, told 10 Philadelphia. “I hope that baby pulls through. I really do. I really do. Eleven months old. My heart is breaking right now. I don’t know what to do.”

The car—later found by reporters from Action News had sustained at least five bullet holes.

Police have canvassed the area where the shooting occurred but haven’t found any bullet casings or reports of shots fired that could be related to the incident. No arrests have been made to date.

Juvenile casualties caused by stray bullets occur all too often, unfortunately, sometimes even with a deadly outcome, like this instance in Alabama:

4-Year-Old Girl Dies After Being Hit by a Stray Bullet to the Head

A four-year-old Alabama girl died when struck in the head by a stray bullet from a gunfight taking place outside her home.

Jurnee Coleman, who lived in Birmingham, Alabama, was in the kitchen on Sunday, July 28, at about 10 p.m. when a fight broke out between two men just outside her home. The home is on Joppa Avenue in Marks Village public housing community in Gate City. Several shots rang out, and a stray bullet struck her head.

She was rushed in critical condition to Children’s of Alabama with a trail of family and friends following. For the next few days, family, friends, and community activists from the Birmingham Justice League would gather outside the hospital, praying for Jurnee’s recovery—it never came. Jurnee died at around 12:45 p.m. on July 31.

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Raymond Shine (Birmingham Police Department)

Raymond Shine, 38, one of the gunmen was arrested on Monday at 1 a.m. He was charged on Tuesday for the attempted murder of the male victim involved in the altercation. Since Jurnee has died, Shine is also charged with her death.

“All that is left is a void that her family must struggle to fill. So, we must pour into them. Please join me in uplifting this family. Please work with us as we expand our conflict resolution efforts,” Mayor Randall Woodfin said on Facebook.

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