The mother of a 5-year-old is by her son’s bedside as her neighbors are working to help police catch the person who pulled the trigger in Tuesday night’s drive-by shooting.
From the alleyway near Denver and Smart Avenues, you can spot the evidence from the violence.
One of the bullets pierced through Joel Pitayo’s bedroom.
“The child was standing [by the bed] playing with his tablet,” Artemio Sanchez, the child’s grandfather, said.
Joel’s mother, Vanessa Sanchez, told 41 Action News she heard the gunshots and walked into the bedroom to find her 5-year-old bleeding.
The bullet entered the little boy’s backside and exited out his right leg.
At the time of the shooting, the boy’s 3-year-old brother was sleeping in another room and his 11-month-old sister was in his mother’s arms.
None of them were hurt.
“It's hard to understand especially with a child,” Artemio Sanchez said. “They're children that don't do anything--they're innocent.”
The crime happened just down the street from Budd Park in the Indian Mound neighborhood.
“I just want to make sure the people here stay here,” Manny Abarca, a member of the Indian Mound Neighborhood Association, said.
Abarca has lived in the neighborhood for four years and said the neighborhood watch group reacted quickly on social media.
“We heard the shots come out from that group, we heard car screeching, lights, sirens—that kind of stuff—then we engaged the overall neighborhood watch page to make sure that the rest of the neighborhood didn't see the car go somewhere or any of the situation happen,” Abarca said.
Police don’t have any description of the suspect(s).
“Imagine if that was your sibling, imagine if that was your house because that's the type of humanity that we need to instill in these situations that I just don't think is there,” Abarca said.
According to August KCPD statistics, there have been 610 victims of drive-by shootings since the start of the year. Ninety-one of those victims are under the age of 17.
“Random gunfire is something that people don't realize that bullets hit things and people--and people happen to be children in this situation,” Abarca said.
If you have any information, call police or the KC Crime Stoppers hotline 816-474-TIPS (8477).
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Andres Gutierrez can be reached at andres.gutierrez@kshb.com
