Long Beach community mourns the death of 12-year-old boy after shooting
Police continued to search for at least two suspects who fled in a vehicle following a shooting in Long Beach that left a 12-year-old boy dead and a 14-year-old girl wounded.
The shooting happened in the 2200 block of Lewis Avenue, between Martin Luther King Jr. and Orange avenues, around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Long Beach Police Department.
Police said the 12-year-old boy, 14-year-old girl and a 13-year-old girl were walking on the sidewalk when a vehicle approached them, occupied by at least two males. That's when an "unknown number of suspect(s) shot at the victims," police said in a statement.
The wounded boy and girl were taken to a hospital, where the boy died and the girl suffered a non-life-threatening wound to her lower body, police said.
Police identified the boy as Eric Gregory Brown III of Long Beach.
No description was released of the vehicle or suspects. The younger girl was not injured, police said.
"The shooting that took place Tuesday night is absolutely devastating," LBPD Chief Wally Hebeish said in a statement. "A young boy's life has been cut short due to an intolerable act of gun violence. While we mourn this loss as a community, our officers will not stop working to locate and arrest those responsible for this tragedy."
Neighbors in the area said investigators were canvassing home surveillance cameras to help identify the suspect's vehicle.
"It's kind of crazy. I just heard the shots and five minutes later, the whole block was blocked off," a neighbor said.
The wounded 14-year-old girl, who was shot in the leg, returned home from the hospital.
"She was lucky that it didn't hit the bone," said David Chen, her father.
Eric's friends and relatives gathered Wednesday outside a relative's apartment to mourn him and light candles, in a vigil that was attended by city officials and some of the boy's classmates from Jackson Middle School, the Long Beach Post reported.
"I got calls that I was on the five o'clock news," Eric's grandmother Cynthia Johnson said, according to the LB Post. "I hope the shooters saw me. I mean, who kills kids?"
Council members Suely Saro and Al Austin and representatives from Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson's office also attended the vigil.
Anyone with information on the shooting was urged to call Dets. Michael Hubbard or Jesus Espinoza at 562-570-7244, or Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
