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Police: 14-year-old boy shot in foot in drive-by shooting

 
Published July 7, 2015

ST. PETERSBURG — A 14-year-old boy standing near his home was shot in the foot Tuesday afternoon in what appears to be a drive-by shooting, St. Petersburg police said.

Children were playing football outside when a blue sport utility vehicle sped down 48th St. S and slammed on its brakes, witness Jessica Shorter said. She had just pulled up in front of her mother's home on 12th Ave. S when the shooting began, she said.

"I see the boy in the backseat with a gun in his hand," she said. "I think, is he really going to shoot? And I hear, boom, boom, boom, boom, and I fell to the ground and started crawling."

She said she called out, "Run, run, everybody run!"

The gunman was "no older than 16," she said, and wore a black hat. Three to four others were with him in the car, she said.

Shorter, 34, whose 8-year-old son was playing in the street, said she heard the victim call out: "Miss Jessica, I got shot, I got shot."

She called for emergency response at 4:18 p.m. The victim was taken to a hospital.

Authorities had not named suspects or a motive several hours after the shooting, but Shorter attributed it to violence between neighborhood groups.

"Yeah, it's gang-related," she said. "It's the first time I've seen it, but I've heard it happen more than once. ... Today, anybody could've been hurt."