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A 9-month-old boy was shot and killed in broad daylight in California — when a gunman opened fire from a car and hit the baby in a stroller, police said.
The boy’s mother was out walking with her boyfriend and son in Merced at 12:30 a.m. Wednesday when shots were fired from a passing car, the Merced Police Department said in a statement.
The mother quickly grabbed her son, Darius Grigsby, and ran to a McDonald’s a block away for help.
Workers at the fast-food chain said at first the distraught mother thought her son was choking after hearing gunshots.
“Me and another manager ran over to her and he called 911. I put my hands on the baby and I saw blood on the mother’s shirt,” one McDonald’s employee recalled.
Despite life-saving efforts by paramedics, the toddler was pronounced dead at the McDonald’s.
Police said they do not believe the gunman’s target was the 9-month-old baby.
“We don’t know what the motive was,” Lt. Joseph Perez told ABC30. “At this point, perhaps one of the parents is a target and the child is tragically caught in the crossfire.”
As of Friday morning, no suspects had been named and no arrests had been made.
At a vigil Thursday at the scene of the shooting, Darius’ grandmother said her devastated mother was struggling to understand what had happened.
“She’s taking it really hard,” Elena Perez told ABC30. “She is still in denial. She still thinks it’s not right.
Darius’ aunt, Andrea Bolanos, described her nephew as a happy baby who was always smiling.
“He doesn’t deserve to go like this, especially this soon,” she said in a statement. “He was starting to enjoy food and be mobile.”
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