Six-month-old baby shot dead in Atlanta, a victim of stray bullet

A 6-month-old baby was fatally shot in Atlanta, marking the second infant to be killed in the city this month amid a surge in gun violence.

The shooting occurred on Monday outside a Food Mart convenience store around 3 p.m. The mourning mother told multiple news outlets she was driving along Anderson Ave. when a bullet pierced her vehicle and then struck her baby, who was seated in the backseat at the time.

He was pronounced dead at Grady Hospital a short time later, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

During a press conference on Monday, Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant told reporters the infant was not the intended target of the gunfire. In the minutes leading up to the deadly violence, two people nearby became involved in an altercation that culminated in the shooting. The mother and her child were simply caught in the crossfire, he said.

“This is painful. This one hurts — for a 6-month-old to be riding down the street and become a victim to gun violence, random gun violence, between two people who can’t resolve a simple issue,” Bryant said.

An investigation into the matter is still underway.

Earlier this month, a 1-year-old girl died after she was shot by another child in her Atlanta home. Authorities said the girl’s mother, Amaiya Dachanel Williams, left the kids alone in a room where she also kept her firearm. The 21-year-old was arrested on Thursday for failing to secure her weapon.

On Wednesday, a 5-year-old girl was also wounded when a pair of drivers in two different vehicles started shooting at each other. She was hit in the back and hospitalized, but remains in stable condition.

“These children are bearing the burden and the pain of adults who are choosing to use guns to solve disputes,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said. “The children are bearing this burden with their lives, and I’m here to ask, and to demand, that it stop right now.”