A 10-year-old boy was rushed to Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital after he was injured by gunshots at a house on Cleveland's east side Thursday morning. The incident was one of two shootings that happened in a three-hour period in Cleveland's Hough neighborhood.
Nearly two dozen shots were fired at a home on the 1650 block of E. 93rd Street and Edmunds Avenue just after 1 a.m. The 10-year-old boy was asleep in an upstairs bedroom when he was hit by gunfire in the chest and face. Police say he is in critical condition.
The boy's mother and three other children were also in the home at the time of the shooting.
"I think it's sad. I think it's bad. This shouldn't be happening," neighbor Marcus Smith said. "You shouldn't see what happened to [the boy]. It's just sad hearing about it. We need to stop the madness."
Several hours before the shooting on E. 93rd Street, police said another shooting took place just blocks away on the 9300 block of Wade Park Avenue. In this earlier shooting, a 17-year-old girl was taken to University Hospitals after she was shot in the face and stomach.
The girl was walking near the street when gunfire erupted around 9:45 p.m. Witnesses who did not want to be identified told News 5 it appeared the shooter was targeting another male when the girl was hit in the crossfire.
The girl's cousin, who also did not want to be identified for fear of retribution, described the shooting as senseless.
"There's a lot of senseless stuff going on around here," the victim's cousin said. "It's crazy. All I can say is there is a lot of nonsense going on around here. I just wish it would calm down. With stuff like this going on, we're going to be losing kids."
According to News 5 archives, three victims under the age of 18 have been murdered in Cleveland this year. It appears that neither victim in these most recent shootings were the intended target.
No information on the suspects has been released.
