A seve-year-old boy died after being hit by a stray bullet while his grandfather was left injured.
It came after a dispute over two jet skis being ridden near to the shore in Florida led to a shooting at around 8.30pm EDT on Tuesday, July 4.
Police say two groups at the Courtney Campbell Causeway in Tampa began to argue after children were playing in an area near to where the vehicles were being driven.
Tampa Police Deputy Chief Calvin Johnson said it was then the two groups began to start shooting at each other.
Johnson said the grandfather grabbed the youngster and attempted to take cover in a truck.
At a press conference, he said: “They were inside the vehicle. A round went through the vehicle, hit the grandfather in the finger and the young man in the head.
“There was no reason, no excuse, for that argument to lead to gunfire, much less an argument over jet skis.”
Johnson says the shooter was “careless” with the firearm and “let anger take over”.
He confirmed the investigation was on-going but no arrests have been made, nor has a suspect been identified.
The boy was pronounced dead at St. Joseph’s Hospital. According to WFLA he has been named as Yitzian Torres Garcia.
The grandfather’s injuries were not thought to be life-threatening.
Johnson added: “Just imagine if that was your child that was killed over this. Your actions and your anger led to a 7-year-old, just starting his life, to be killed.”
The boy’s mother, Marisol Ayala, told WFLA: “He didn’t kill an animal, he killed a human being, a baby starting to live that had nothing to do with his fights, with guns or nothing, we’re suffering, we lost a life.”
Yitzian Torres Garcia
