LAPD: Boy, 1, dead after shot by teen on bike

Police respond to the scene of a shooting in Los Angeles, where a 1-year-old boy and his father were targeted by a suspect on a bicycle, June 4, 2012. / CBS Los Angeles

(CBS/AP) LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles police say a 1-year-old boy has died after he and his father were shot by a teenager on a bicycle.

Police Capt. Phillip Tingirides tells CBS station KCAL-TV that the teen rode the bike past the 24-year-old father and boy as they stood on a sidewalk in front of a home in Watts and fired several rounds Monday evening. Tingirides says the baby was hit once in the torso and the father was hit once in the shoulder.

The Los Angeles Times reports that police say the boy died at about 11 p.m. at a hospital, where he had undergone emergency surgery.

The suspect fled and hasn't been arrested.

Police could not immediately name a motive, but Tingirides says investigators were leaning heavily toward gang rivalry being the cause.

[lloydbest1]

If this is gang related, it could be an initiation rite. The shooter, described as a young teen, may have had to prove his worthiness to join the gang by shooting a rival.

I haven't read anywhere that the teen was black but if he was, there could be racial implications in this crime. Blacks and Latinos have has a history of mutual antagonism, often violent, that dates back to at least the late 60's when I lived in nearby Compton for a brief period of time. Time to levy hate crime charges if this twerp is ever caught.

This is an outrageous crime made more so by my suspicion that the baby was the primary target. In an escalating war (which is exactly what this conflict has become) each side tries to outdo the other in terms of atrocities committed against the other side. Targeting infants is about as low as you can get and it is impossible for me to understand how someone can be so psychotic.

According to news sources, the community is up in arms and I can't blame them. My hope is all good and honorable people living in these battleground neighborhoods get together and throw off the anti-social menaces that at threatening to ruin everything and everyone.

[credibility2]

Our system lacks the spine and conviction to have an all out assault on these urban terrorists and call in the military and have them finish the job on these barbarians and permanently rid civilized society of these heinous individuals. Our system cares more about not offending the criminals and preserving their rights, while dismissing the victim and their rights. Get rid of these pieces of human debris.

[SoCal_Gridlock]

I truly don't understand why it would be so hard to either completely eliminate gangs and gang activity or at least take a huge bite out of it and here's how: every time a gang crime is committed you hold each and every member of that gang responsible for that crime. If they are willing to rise together then they and dam well fall together as well. They have absolutely no redeeming value, they are menaces to society and they need to be wiped out like the cockroaches they are.

[mrmeal00]

Where's Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and the Black Panthers on this one? A black kid killed an unarmed latino baby.

[alinrodneyvil]

You Racist moron.

[mrmeal00]

No, seriously. I want to know. A hispanic killed a black kid who was assaulting him, and everyone comes to his defense without knowing any of the facts, and scapegoating the real victim, eliminating any possibility for a fair trial. That was all over a thug. What about this baby? They'll defend thugs but not babies? Maybe there's some audio clips out there for NBC to edit for this case.

[krotec54]

Authorities are investigating gang rivalry as a possible cause of the shooting. Police said the Watts area has suffered a spate of fatal Latino and African American gang shootings over the last year.
The attacker in the incident was described as black, police said, and the victims were Latino.