MILWAUKEE — A 9-year-old boy was shot and killed early Thursday in Milwaukee, police said, becoming the fourth young gunshot victim in the city in recent weeks.
Jonael Zambrano died at a hospital, about two hours after he was shot in a bedroom around midnight, the Milwaukee County medical examiner’s office said.
The boy was a student at Greater Holy Temple Christian Academy. FOX6 News quoted his family as saying shots were fired from outside the apartment building
“These are things that should not happen,” Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said. “There is no way, no how that … on the night of the last day of school before summer break that a kid should have lost his life because somebody decided to shoot a gun.”
No other details about the shooting were released by police. Investigators were searching for “unknown suspects,” Capt. Warren Allen Jr. said.
A 10-year-old girl was killed May 31 in Milwaukee while sleeping in her bed. A few weeks earlier, two teenagers were fatally shot by another teen.
“It is infuriating because all gun-related deaths are avoidable, and it is incumbent upon us to do better to ensure our children are not in harm’s way,” said Larresa Taylor, a member of the city’s Common Council.