A six-month-old baby was killed by a stray bullet in broad daylight in Atlanta Monday, marking the third – and the youngest – child shot in the city this year as violent crime continues to sweep across America’s urban communities.
According to local reports, baby Grayson Fleming was sitting in a car in Atlanta's Dixie Hills community at around 3 p.m. when he was hit by a bullet during a gunfight between two unrelated people. Neither shooter has yet been publicly identified or caught.
Keona Jones, a neighbor who heard the gunshots and came outside to see what was going on, said she and her husband were devastated to learn the victim was an infant.
Other neighbors started walking down the street and we were told a baby had gotten shot,'" Jones said.
Immediately my heart, it just began to break," she added. "We actually both kind of teared up. Here we go again. Another life lost. Another senseless death."
A 5-year-old who was also sitting in a car was hit by gunfire in a shootout between two other drivers on January 19 in southern Atlanta.
According to Fox5, Atlanta Police recorded 21,426 “Part I offenses" in 2021, a category that includes criminal homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, auto theft and arson. That total included 158 murders, 166 rapes, and 3,067 carjackings.