A 13-year-old boy was shot and killed while playing with an iPad in his bedroom in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, police said.
The boy was sitting in his room Friday evening when bullets fired at his home pierced through the window, striking him in the head, the Tuscaloosa Police Department said in a statement.
“The parents and family of a 13-year-old boy had to stand across the street and watch paramedics drive the ambulance away after realizing there was nothing they could do,” police said.
Officers responded to the scene around 6:20 p.m. Investigators found so many shell casings in front of the boy’s home, officers folded their business cards to use as temporary evidence markers, the department said.
Tuscaloosa Police Chief Brent Blankley called the shooting “a senseless murder.”
“We see it all the time where adults are shot and it’s terrible, but when it’s a kid, it takes it to another level,” Blankley said in a video posted to the police department’s Facebook page. “We’re all dads and moms out here. When you see that and you see the senseless tragedy of that, you know, it hits you different.”
The shooting doesn’t appear to be accidental, Capt. Marty Sellers of the Tuscaloosa Police Department Violent Crimes Unit told CNN affiliate WBRC
“It was an on purpose shooting, but (the teen) was probably not the target of that. We are looking at people that are possible suspects. We are looking at some vehicles that we are trying to locate, so we are still actively working,” Sellers said.
Sellers urged witnesses to tell investigators what they saw. “There were several shots fired, so certainly would draw people’s attention. It was early evening, so it was not dark outside, so people saw things and we just need them to step forward. Imagine if it was your family,” he told WBRC.