Police Questioning Several Suspects In Shooting Death Of 4-Year-Old Bronx Boy
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The NYPD expects charges to be filed against a 17-year-old in connection to the weekend shooting that left a 4-year-old Bronx boy dead. And it appears that's just for starters.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Tuesday the teen admitted firing shots during a charity basketball game on Sunday. The little boy was at a playground at the Forest Houses in the Morrisania section when the gun battle broke out just after 9:30 p.m.
Lloyd Morgan was shot in the head and died at the hospital, police said.
Late Tuesday night the police were questioning several suspects, all believed to have opened fired amid the crowd, CBS 2's Jessica Schneider reported.
"We believe that the way police were aggressively policing this situation that they would have a suspect sooner or later, and it happens to be soon," Assemblyman Eric Stevenson said.
WCBS 880's Irene Cornell: Ray Kelly Says It's A "Very Sad Situation"
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"It's a very sad situation where you have a 17-year-old admitting to the fact that he fired shots where a 4-year-old was killed," Kelly said, adding that there were three or possibly four shooters involved in the incident. It's not yet clear which of them shot Lloyd.
Kelly said there were three different types of ammunition found at the scene. The 17-year-old reportedly fired a .45 caliber handgun. Nine shell casings from that gun were found around the courts and about 15 feet from where little Lloyd Morgan was struck and 30 feet from where two other victims were hit, CBS 2's Schneider reported.
Police don't know if his was the fatal shot, in large part because no bullet ever lodged in the boy's head, and instead passed through his tiny body.
Kelly said so far only the 17-year-old is expected to face charges.
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"So many gunshots and while this was going on, I was just looking for my baby," Lloyd's mother, Shianne Norman, said. "My son was 4 years old. He just turned 4 this May that just passed. He was going to school in September. He hasn't gotten to live his life yet. He hasn't gotten to do anything."
A rally and vigil was held late Monday afternoon at Forest Houses basketball court where Lloyd was killed. Flyers were being handed out advertising the $12,000 reward offered for information leading to an arrest.
Tuesday morning, the NYPD took to Twitter to spread word of their reward, and asking for folks to retweet the message.
Between Morgan's shooting and the massacre at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., Mayor Michael Bloomberg has stepped up his attacks on politicians -- including President Barack Obama and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney -- over their gun control policies. Bloomberg challenged Obama and Romney to get specific about their positions. On Monday night, the mayor also said that he doesn't understand why police across the country don't go on strike.
The Lloyd Morgan tragedy is also prompting some prominent politicians to come out in support of the NYPD's controversial policy of "stop and frisk."
Assemblyman Ruben Diaz told reporters, including CBS 2's Emily Smith, that he is changing his long-time position on the stop and frisk tactic used by the NYPD. He said he now supports whatever it takes to stop the killing.
"I know it's not too politically correct, but I am fully, totally supporting stop and frisk now," Diaz said.
Assemblyman Stevenson, clergy and neighborhood residents called on the community to come forward with information in the case. Stevenson also said the killing made him a believer in the controversial policy.
"I do support the stop and frisk to the extent that we have some better reform of it," Stevenson said.
Two men were also shot, a 27-year-old in the stomach and a 21-year-old in the arm. They were both taken to the hospital and are listed in stable condition.
"You changed my whole life in an instant and I don't know how I'm supposed to go on," Norman said of the shooter. "I hate these men. You've destroyed me."
This is the second time Lloyd's father Lloyd Morgan Sr. has lost a child. Morgan said his newborn daughter was killed by her mother six years ago. Her body was found in a trash bag stuffed in her grandmother's closet.
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