Police seek suspects in shooting of 2 kids

Investigators think car, not victims, was targeted

With her son bleeding heavily in the back seat, a distraught mother drove from where bullets had been flying and pulled into a convenience store parking lot to call police Thursday night.

“He’s bleeding to death,” Schaunte Hill of West Carrollton is heard saying on the 911 tape. In the background are the screams of her 10-year-old son, Quayshon .

She asked him where he was shot. “They hit my eye,” the boy screamed.

The shooters were still on the loose Friday. Police believe one or more shooters targeted the vehicle, a 2006 Buick LaCrosse, hoping someone else was inside.

“They were shooting at the vehicle. They knew someone was inside,” said Dayton Sgt. Dan Mauch, head of the homicide squad. “The mother and her three children were innocent victims.”

Mauch said the shooting was likely the result of an “on-going situation” but declined to provide details. Police were searching for “persons of interest.”

Quayshon, his 7-year-old sister, Tayjanae, and a 2-year-old sister were in the backseat and their 26-year-old mother was in the driver’s seat in the parking lot outside Hooks House of Bar B.Q, 2324 N. Gettysburg Ave., when bullets raked the sedan at about 8:15 p.m.

Quayshon, a fourth-grader at Harry Russell Elementary in West Carrollton, was struck in the head.

Police collected 17 shell casings from the scene.

Mauch said the car was hit four or five times.

Quayshon was listed in critical condition Friday night at Children’s Medical Center of Dayton.

Tayjanae, who suffered a grazing wound to her arm, was treated and released Thursday night , according to Miami Valley Hospital .

Mauch said there were a number of witnesses and asked anyone with information to call 333-COPS.

“They did this on purpose,” Mauch said. “ We’re not going to have that in our community. … We will track down the thugs that did this.”

Hill drove to the Stop N Shop, 2454 N. Gettysburg Ave., near St. Johns Avenue to get help.

Bystanders also called 911 . They described the mother’s attempts to halt the flow of blood as she laid Quayshon down on the back seat and comforted the boy, now bathed in blood.

Hill is heard in the background of the 911 recording telling her son, “I love you.” Then she begins to scream, “Where are they? Where are they? Where are they?”

Police are looking for two men believed to have been in a maroon Chevrolet as either witnesses or suspects. They also were looking for surveillance video from businesses surrounding the area of the shooting, including a U.S. Bank and Church’s Chicken restaurant, to see if the incident was caught on tape.

Tony Hooks, owner of the barbecue, said he and others heard the shots while in the restaurant . “We swore up and down it was firecrackers. We didn’t think anything of it,” he said. “Our manager went to the window and he didn’t see anything. ”

Hooks said it was something he has seen before. His mother, Shirley , was killed in a shooting at the restaurant in January 2000.

“So much bad stuff happens around here all the time,” he said. “Right now, it really isn’t about me or how it affects the business. Right now it is all about that child making it.”

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