An 8-year-old boy who was struck in the leg by a stray bullet from a shooting in Watts was hospitalized in stable condition Thursday morning and the shooter was at-large.
Officers in the area of 109th Street and Wilmington Avenue heard shots about 7:40 p.m. Wednesday, according to the watch commander at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Southeast Station.
Police briefly chased the gunman, but lost sight of him, prompting a search of the neighborhood, the LAPD said.
The boy, who was a bystander, was wounded in his leg and taken to a hospital in stable condition, police said.
“He made it upstairs with a bullet wound in his leg,” the boy’s sister, Vanessa Sanchez, told reporters at the scene. “He went upstairs, didn’t even tell us he was shot. He was so scared.”
A firearm was recovered at the scene, police said.
A detailed description of the shooter was not immediately released.
A motive for the shooting was unknown, but police said the child was likely not the intended target.