Community Enraged After Six-Year-Old Boy Is Gunned Down
Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – It's happened again. Police are on the hunt for several men they say killed a six year old boy in a drive by shooting Saturday afternoon. King Carter was walking to the corner store by his apartment off of NW 103 street and 12 avenue to buy candy when he was hit.
The Miami-Dade police director and detectives from all across the county swarmed the apartment complex. They combed for evidence, their chopper circling and looking for three men, possibly in a black 4-door car that sped away.
"I'm angry. Our officers are angry. The community behind me is angry," Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Perez said. It's all hands on deck. All of us have kids. And when you let your kid out to play you do not expect someone's gonna come shooting up your neighborhood and that your child is going to be hit. It's a nightmare."
Meanwhile at Jackson Memorial Hospital where little King was pronounced dead there were tears, hugs and rage.
"Somebody saw something! Somebody heard something 'cause we live in an area where everybody talks," said an emotional aunt to the crowd of loved ones.
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez was also at the scene of the drive by shooting. The Mayor said he was adding $20,000 of his office's funds to the $5,000 Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers is already offering for information leading to the shooters.
"We have to up the reward because we need the community's help," said Gimenez. "The key to stopping this is the community's help. A lot of people know where the drug houses are and those are the targets. That's what's getting hit. There are people in the community who know that. We need that information."
Friends told CBS4 Reporter Donna Rapado the boy's parents worked hard to keep him out of trouble, making sure he did well in school and played sports.
"I guarantee you this," said King's father, Santonio Carter. "Monday morning on behalf of my son King Carter I'm gonna start a campaign Saving Our Kings. And I'm gonna do the same thing I did with my King. I'm gonna pick them up from school, teach him how to do his homework, we'll do recreational exercises. And we gonna have fun. Take them fishing. Show them how to be real men."
King was shot just a block from Van E. Blanton Elementary School on NW 103 Street and 11 avenue where he was a first grader.
Increasingly outraged and outspoken Miami-Dade schools superintendent Alberto Carvalho called this latest shooting of a child too close to home. Carvalho went to the hospital to support the family, including the boy's aunt, a former Teacher of the Year Award recipient.
"This time rather than hear about this tragedy from the media or the police I heard it from my colleagues for the aunt of this child happens to be one of Miami's finest teachers," said Carvalho. "We know that the code of silence continues to maim, victimize and kill children the most innocent souls in Miami."
"We're hunting for you," police director Juan Perez warned the shooters. "And if you're involved may as well turn yourself in because I don't believe the community is gonna stand idle on this. So we're gonna get you today, tomorrow or eventually, but we'll get you."
Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.
