A 2-month-old boy was in critical but stable condition Friday after his teenage uncle shot him in the neck inside a north Minneapolis home, a story that felt too familiar to activists and others who've decried a grim series of local shootings that have killed or injured children.
The infant's family initially told police that the child was shot by random gunfire as his father held him outside the home Thursday night but later admitted that the uncle shot him in what police have said was an accident.
"What is infuriating to me is having a gun in the house, with babies, and children. That's what's infuriating to me," said Don Samuels, a City Council member and mayoral candidate who was holding a vigil outside the house through Saturday night.
The gun used in the shooting has not been recovered, and the shooter, whom the police say they know, remained at large. He is a juvenile in his late teens, according to police.
Teens armed with illegal guns, particularly handguns, were the subject of a lengthy Star Tribune series this year that showed how easy it is for juveniles to arm themselves through straw purchases, gun shows, thefts and gang contacts.
At a news conference Friday afternoon, Police Commander Catherine Johnson said she believes the shooting was accidental but didn't provide details of what happened inside the duplex on the 2400 block of Emerson Avenue N.
Katie Phillips, who lives there, told reporters that several visitors, including the teen gunman, had stopped by to watch a football game on television. She wasn't home at the time of the shooting and didn't know exactly how it happened.
Based on interviews with the boy's family, police initially believed that the boy's father was shot at while standing on the street outside of his house and holding the boy. Police officers scoured the neighborhood looking for a shooter.
