A 7-year-old Ohio boy was hospitalized following a shooting that sent a bullet through his apartment wall.
Police told local outlets WOIO, News 5 Clevelandand WKYC that at around 2:45 a.m. local time on Saturday, Dec. 21, officers responded to a call about a shooting in an apartment building located on the 400 block of Wildwood Avenue in West Akron.
The child was injured in the shooting, sustaining a gunshot wound. In a 911 call obtained by WOIO, the boy’s mother can be heard asking first responders to arrive as soon as possible and reassuring her son as he cried in the background.
Police vehicle lights (stock image).
Emergency personnel arrived at the scene and transported the boy to a nearby hospital. News 5 reported that he is in “serious but stable condition,” and WOIO said that the boy underwent a successful surgery before being transferred to intensive care.
Officials said that while the shooting is still under investigation, police believe that an upstairs neighbor in the apartment building fired shots, the outlets reported.
According to WOIO, at least one bullet passed through the floor and hit the boy. Police said investigators searched the unit directly above the boy and his mother. While no one was home at the time of the investigation, police found a bullet hole in the floor.
“While the exact circumstances are unknown, preliminary information suggests that an unknown subject fired gunshots inside an upstairs apartment, and at least one of the bullets penetrated the floor and struck the victim, who was inside the residence below,” the Akron police department said, per WKYC.
Akron detectives are asking anyone who has information that could help to identify and locate “anyone with knowledge of or responsible” for the shooting to call the Akron Police Department Detective Bureau at 330-375-2490 or 330-375-2TIP.
