9 children were injured in a shooting during an altercation at a Georgia gas station, including a 5-year-old boy who was hit by gunfire

CNN
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Nine boys and girls under the age of 18 were injured in a shooting at a gas station in Columbus, Georgia, including a 5-year-old boy who was hit by gunfire while standing there was with a family member Friday night, authorities said.

The gunfire erupted when a group of minors attending a nearby party got into an argument and drove into the parking lot of the Shell petrol station shortly after 10 p.m., the police chief of the city said on Saturday. Columbus, Freddie Blackmon.

Seven boys and two girls suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the incident, Blackmon told a news conference on Saturday. Four of the injured have already been discharged from hospital, he added.

Blackmon said the oldest person injured was 17 and the youngest was the 5-year-old boy.

It is not known what caused the altercation. Blackmon said there was no indication the injured 5-year-old was being targeted.

It is also unclear who opened fire, how many weapons were involved and how many shots were fired.

While some of the witnesses who were at the scene are cooperating with police, others are not, Blackmon said.

Blackmon encouraged parents to get information from their children if they were at the shooting and share it with police. It is unclear whether any of the minors’ parents were at the gas station when shots were fired, he said.

No charges were announced Saturday afternoon and no one has been identified, given the ages of those involved.

Cases like this will not be tolerated, Blackmon said.

“As I always say, it takes our whole community to fight gun violence in our city. Especially when it involves children,” Blackmon said. “It takes our whole village. We all have a responsibility because cases like this really impact all of us.

Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson called the shooting “particularly horrifying and particularly disturbing” given the age and number of people involved.

“Our prayers are with all of these injured young people and certainly all of their families,” Henderson said. “Because even though we are so lucky and grateful to God that no one lost their lives, it changed a lot of lives that night for those children and the people charged with caring for them.”