A young boy was fatally shot while riding in a car together with his siblings and his mother.
The deadly shooting took place in North Carolina where 7-year-old Zakylen Greylen Harris was struck in the neck after a single shot was fired at his family’s car in Hickory.
Since the Wednesday night shooting, the authorities have launched an investigation to catch the suspect and come to the bottom of the circumstances surrounding the incident.
Though her allegations cannot be confirmed as of this writing, the mother of the young boy suggested that her son was a victim of road rage rather than a targeted attack.
According to Hickory police, officers responding to the scene found Zakylen with a gunshot wound to his neck. Though the 7-year-old was immediately rushed to the hospital, he was later pronounced dead.
The authorities also confirmed that the boy was sitting in the backseat of the car alongside his two younger brothers at the time of the shooting. The other two boys, aged one and six, were not injured. The mother wasn’t injured either.
As of this writing, the police have released scant details about the suspect.
As they noted, the suspect(s) were riding in a small, dark SUV. While they pointed out that a white, light-haired female was sitting in the passenger seat at the front of the vehicle, they didn’t rule out the possibility that multiple occupants were inside the car at the time of the shooting.
According to Zakylen’s mom, the female SUV passenger shouted something at her before a passenger shot a single round into her car, striking her son in the neck.
The mother also told the police she had unintentionally cut off the SUV before the family was chased down by the vehicle and shot at.
“This was a senseless act of violence. There’s no excuse for this,” said Hickory Police Chief Thurman Whisnant on Thursday.
The case remains under investigation.
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