Five people have been injured, including an eight-year-old girl, after shots were fired into a memorial gathering.
The shooting occurred around 9pm on Thursday outside of a home in Syracuse, New York, where a crowd had gathered outside of a home to mourn the passing of Richard Harris, who died in hospice care of pancreatic cancer.
Witnesses saw two or possibly three shooters on foot firing up to 10 shots into the crowd outside the home on the 1300 block of Midland Avenue, the Post-Standard reported.
The home where the shooting occurred is owned by family members of Rashaad Walker Jr, who was 20 months old when he was killed in a gang shooting in 2010.
Police and ambulances respond to the scene where five people were injured in a shooting outside of a home in Syracuse, New York on Friday night
Tammy Jamison told the paper that about 50 people were gathered for the memorial, and the crowd fled for cover inside the home when the gunshots broke out.
‘When the shooting started I ducked,’ she said. ‘What would you do?’
Multiple ambulances responded to the scene and rushed the victims to Upstate University Hospital.
The youngest victim was an eight-year-old girl while the oldest was 35. All are in stable condition and expected to survive their injuries, police said.
Outside the emergency room at Upstate University, there was a heavy police presence and dozens of family members had gathered, WLOS reported.
Family member of the wounded gather outside of the emergency room as police provide a heavy security presence at the hospital
Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler held a press conference at the scene of the shooting at around 11pm.
‘This is a very tragic event,’ Fowler said, according to CNY Central. ‘This is something that cannot occur in our community. I can tell you right now there are folks out there who have information about what happened here tonight and there are a lot of people that are standing around me that are completely outraged and heartbroken tonight and this type of investigation deserves closure.’
He said police could not yet say how many shooters there were, or whether it was a drive-by shooting or not.
Fowler said that it was unclear whether another shooting committed blocks away less than an hour later was connected. A 14-year-old girl was injured in that incident.
The shooting occurred outside of this home, where the family prominently displays a large photo of their slain toddler eight years after he was killed in a gang shooting
Outside the home where five were shot, a six-foot photo of slain toddler Walker Jr is still prominently displayed eight years after his death.
The toddler was sitting in a car seat in a parked minivan when Saquan Evans, a reputed gang member, fired into the vehicle.
Police believe the shooting was an attempt to kill the child’s father, a reputed member of a rival gang.
Evans was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for second-degree murder, plus an additional 15 years for second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.