A six-year-old boy in Philadelphia is in critical condition after being struck in the crossfire of a gun battle that left at least four people injured.
The boy, Mahaj Brown, was hit with at least 10 bullets, but is expected to recover despite wounds to his left leg and chest. Police said more than 50 shell casings have been recovered from what they describe as a “running gun battle”. Multiple buildings and vehicles were also damaged in the incident. It is believed that at least one of the gunmen was wielding an AK-47 assault rifle during the shooting in the city’s Germantown neighborhood.
“He was going home to go to bed, from his grandmother’s house to his mother’s house. And to get caught with assault rifles?” Mahaj’s grandmother Delores Melendez told ABC 6 in Philadelphia. Mahaj was in a car with a 32-year-old man that family identified as the boy’s godfather when the shots began. The 32-year-old was also struck, treated and released from the hospital.
Melendez said the boy remained conscious through the entire ordeal and said, “I can’t believe I was shot. I can’t believe I was shot.”
The shooting marks the second time a young child has been seriously injured by stray gunfire in the city just this week. On Tuesday six-year-old Anila Garrick was hit by a bullet as she played in front of her home. Garrick remained at the same children’s hospital where Brown was being treated on Friday morning, and doctors said she is recovering rapidly. Although surveillance footage was released by police in the Tuesday shooting, no suspects have been identified in either incident.
The predominantly black neighborhood of Germantown has struggled, not unlike other neighborhoods in the city, to maintain productive relationships between police and residents. This often leads to few criminal leads in cases like this where residents may be hesitant to tip police off to the possible identity of the shooters.
“Speak up and say something,” Melendez said. “People’s children are dying for no reason. My grandbaby is up there suffering for what? He did nothing.”
Unlike many large US cities like New York and Washington, which saw large upswings in violent crime during the late 1980s and early 1990s, followed by precipitous drops during the late 90s, Philadelphia’s homicide rate has been relatively stable over the past 30 years. The city has seen an average of more than 320 homicides a year over the last decade.
