Police reported Monday that ten people were shot, including a one-year-old child, in Little Rock over the past weekend. One person died.
Three shootings occurred on Friday, Jan. 28. One shooting took place on on University Ave. near the I-630 overpass. Injuries were sustained by victims ranging from one to 24-years-old. One person, 20-year old Bradford Bankston of Pine Bluff, was killed.
Two more people were shot on Saturday night at the Old Carwash on Asher Ave. The victims sustained non-life-threatening injuries, police reported.
Little Rock Police Chief, Keith Humphrey, held a press conference Monday to address rapidly increasing gun violence in the city.
Humphrey believes many of the suspects involved in recent gun crimes throughout the city are teens and young adults and that these incidents are usually “targeted.”
“We believe in all these shootings, the victims, with the exception of the 1-year-old and the caregiver of the 1-year-old were targeted,” Humphrey said during the press conference.
“These kids are displaying these weapons on social media, they’re displaying them in front yards, they’re talking about them at school,” he said.
The police chief pleaded with parents to talk to their children.
“Start checking your kids’ cell phones. Start checking your kids’ social media. Start looking in your kids’ rooms.”
Humphrey reported that guns involved in the violent crimes, which are likely obtained illegally, are being converted from semi-automatic to fully automatic to be more deadly. He said all of the shootings involved assault-type rifles or semi-automatic weapons that were modified to shoot continuously, and that over 60 rounds were fired over the weekend.
“I believe in the 2nd Amendment, I believe people have a right to own guns,” Humphrey said. “I don’t believe people have a right — in this situation — to take a gun, convert it in an attempt to hurt someone, to kill someone.”
The rise in gun violence comes just weeks after the City began accepting a wide variety of proposals to tackle community violence as part of a larger violent crime reduction plan announced in October 2021.
As of Monday, Little Rock police said that no arrests have been made and are requesting individuals who may have information about the weekend shootings to call 501-371-4636.
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