Syracuse, N.Y. — An 11-year-old girl was killed in a drive-by shooting that also left a 19-year-old man injured across the street from Dr. King Elementary School Monday night.
Around 7:43 p.m., a car pulled up to the intersection of Oakwood Avenue and Martin Luther King East and someone inside the vehicle began firing shots at the 19-year-old man, Police Chief Joe Cecile said Monday night.
The girl and the man were rushed to Upstate University Hospital where she was pronounced dead, Cecile said.
“We have a mother up at the hospital right now that just lost her 11-year-old daughter and you’re going to have a school full of children tomorrow without their classmate, because she walked a block down the street for some milk for her family,” Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh said at the scene. “It’s senseless and it’s just brutal.” Neighbors and family members stood out in the cold behind the crime scene tape as police processed the crime scene. Screams and sobs echoed through the street as loved ones were notified of the situation.
Police on the scene walked family members past the crime scene tape to an apartment just feet away from the site of the murder. At least five evidence markers were laid out in the street. Police do not know if the girl and the 19-year-old are related in any way, he said. The 19-year-old appeared to be the target of the shooting, Cecile said. He was shot in the leg and is expected to survive, he said.
Police are canvassing the neighborhood and collecting surveillance footage from the convenience store and police cameras in the area.
The Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office helicopter was in the air Monday night to aid Syracuse police with the homicide investigation, said Tom Newton, a sheriff’s office spokesperson.
