Arkansas road rage shooting: Toddler killed while on shopping trip with grandma ID'd
LITTLE ROCK -- The Arkansas boy killed in an apparent road rage shooting while on a shopping trip with his grandmother has been identified as three-year-old Acen King, reports CBS affiliate KTHV.
The boy died Saturday night in Little Rock. According to the station, his grandmother, Kim King-Macon, was behind the wheel and at a stop sign when the driver of a black 2003 Chevy Impala honked the horn at her. The woman honked back, and that’s when the driver, apparently angry the woman wasn’t moving fast enough, exited his car and opened fire, police say.
The boy, riding in the backseat, was struck by gunfire at least once, they said.
The grandmother, who wasn’t struck, drove away -- not immediately realizing the child was hit -- and called police from a shopping center. The child’s little brother, 1, was also in the car with the grandmother during the shooting and reportedly wasn’t injured.
Police arrived at the shopping center and found the boy in the car outside a JCPenney department store. The boy was taken to a hospital, where he died shortly after, becoming the second young child shot dead in a road rage incident in the city in the last few weeks.
Police Lt. Steve McClanahan said investigators believe the boy and his grandmother “were completely innocent” and have no relationship with the shooter, who has not been apprehended. McClanahan said the grandmother simply was “driving the car and was taking her grandson shopping when the incident occurred.”
“That is very, very frustrating to our police agency as it should be to our community,” Little Rock police chief Kenton Buckner told the station. “We cannot have a community where the least protected among us, being infants, are dying [in] senseless crimes.”
Police are also still searching for the Impala. On Sunday, the Little Rock Police Department announced a $20,000 reward for information in the case.