(BIRMINGHAM, Ala.) — Authorities in Alabama are offering $125,000 for information leading to arrests in five separate shootings of young children.
Six children younger than 10 years old have been shot in Birmingham so far this year, and only one related arrest has been made, Mayor Randall Woodfin said at a press conference.
Five of those shootings took place from February to May, and one resulted in the death of a 2-year-old boy, officials said.
Woodfin, along with city and local faith leaders, announced the $125,000 Gun Violence Against Children Fund on Tuesday — Crime Stoppers will administer the fund and pay $25,000 rewards for tips that lead to arrests in each of the cases.
“This crosses the line, when children are involved. There’s a line that has been crossed when children are hurt, there’s a line that’s crossed when a child is killed,” Woodfin said.
Two-year-old Major Turner was shot Feb. 4 when someone opened fire into his home in the Kimbrough Homes Housing Community. He died the following day.
On April 4, a 5-year-old boy was one of five people shot and injured at Patton Park on Easter Sunday. A month later, a 9-year-old boy was injured when someone fired into his home in the 4700 block of Avenue T on May 7. On May 18, an 8-year-old girl was shot and injured in her car when her family stopped to help another motorist in the 1400 block of Warrior Road, and on May 22, a 5-year-old boy was shot and injured along with two adults in their car in the 8300 block of First Avenue North.
Katrina Grady, mother of the 8-year-old girl, opened up about the terrifying incident at the Tuesday press conference.
She said she pulled over after seeing a vehicle with its airbags deployed on Warrior Road in West Birmingham. As a nurse, she wanted to make sure nobody was hurt. When she approached the car, no one was inside. That’s when she heard neighbors shout, “Get down!”
“When I got down, a vehicle came up the street and started back shooting. … It was a rifle bullet that hit my baby in the head,” Grady said. Her daughter survived.
“Somebody knows who done this to my child,” she added. “I want justice.”
Since the February shooting of Major Turner, who was killed in one of the city’s public housing sites, the Birmingham Housing Authority has added cameras, flood lights and license plate readers at its 14 communities.
Anyone with information on the shootings mentioned or any other unsolved case can call Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.
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