Three kids shot in Detroit in just over 48 hours

We’re now up to three kids shot in Detroit in a little over two days.

The first victim, a 7-year-old boy, was hit by a stray bullet late Thursday night while he was tucked away in his home on Detroit’s east side. The culprit — angered by a love triangle, police said — had pumped more than a dozen rounds from a high-powered automatic weapon with the intention of sending them into a different house. A couple bullets missed, police said, and one hit the little boy’s neck, leaving him in critical condition. Police said he was expected to recover.

A second victim, a 3-year-old girl, was shot in broad daylight at a gas station on Detroit's west side on Saturday. The early afternoon shooting was the result of an altercation between a pair of men at the gas station, police said. The girl had been in the car with her mother when one of the men pulled out a gun and the other took cover behind their vehicle. The girl was shot in the head and was also in critical condition.
Then, in the early morning hours on Sunday, a third kid was shot. The victim, a 16-year-old, had reportedly just left a hotel across 8 Mile in Southfield when police said he heard a gunshot and discovered he’d been shot in the leg. He was taken to the hospital and released.

The spate of shootings injuring children follows a violent crime-ridden Easter weekend in Detroit that saw 15 people shot, and six of them killed.

At a pair of news conferences convened to detail the circumstances surrounding the critically wounded kids, Detroit Police Chief James Craig and Assistant Chief Arnold White tried to combat perceptions of a perilous city by stressing that crime in Detroit is down overall.

Police said they had a person of interest in custody in connection with the shooting of the 7-year-old. They said they had a suspect in custody in connection with the shooting of the 3-year-old.
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