Police are hunting for a gunman who pulled up in his car and opened fire on a group of children as they played basketball in an Ohio street.
Surveillance camera footage captured from a neighbor’s house shows a man in a white car pulling up, getting out and aiming at the youngsters in Akron on Sunday afternoon.
The teenagers had been enjoying a game of basketball when a car sped down the road. One of the children shouted at the car to slow down, prompting the driver to stop a few houses down.
Speaking to local media, 15-year-old Markeise Smith described how he and his friends ran for their lives after the man pulled out a gun and started firing.
Explaining that he’d rushed to help his 11-year-old friend, the teenager described the moment he realized the man had a weapon. Smith said: “He reached in the car for something and that’s when I found out he had a gun.
“He put it under his arm, trying to hide it from me. He put it under his arm, holding the gun, and then I started walking away, thinking that it’s time for me to hide from the gun, until he started shooting. That’s when I started running after him (11-year-old neighbor) to tell him to go into the house and I ran into the backyard and I told my mom to come to the backdoor.”
Jennifer Grier, Markeise’s mother, told Akron Beacon Journal that she was happy her son acted so quickly trying to keep others and himself safe.
The 39-year-old said: “What could you possibly be thinking to shoot at a kid?”
Police are searching for a gunman who opened fire at several children as they played basketball on their street in Akron, Ohio Sunday. https://t.co/6QQAhGojwH
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Dolly Young, whose 11-year-old son was one of the children targeted, described the shooter as an “animal.”
The 38-year-old told the news outlet that she had just left the house when she got a phone call to go back. Arriving home, she was told a man had shot at her child.
She said: “It could have been my son. It could have been her son. We might not have had our sons. If he could do that to a child, what can he do to someone else? He’s an animal.”
Police have launched a manhunt to find the shooter who fired three gunshots in the 1400 block of Rockaway Street before speeding off at around 4.p.m.
It is understood the gunman was driving a white Pontiac G6 with tinted windows and temporary plates.
Newsweek has contacted Akron Police Department for comment.
