A one-day-old baby miraculously survived a deadly shooting in which his young parents were killed in a Los Angeles neighborhood last September, authorities said Thursday.
Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) responding to the Sept. 4 shooting report found the baby in a car with his parents, 21-year-old Carlos Loera and 18-year-old Ashley Guzman in Harbor City, Captain Jamie Bennett said at a press conference. All three had been shot and the two adults died of their injuries.
“Miraculously, the child was in his car seat and the bullet passed through the car seat, slowing its velocity and not causing mortal or severe injury to the child,” Captain Bennett told reporters.
A 17-year-old lost his life in a connected shooting 26 days later just four miles from Harbor City, Bennett added. Just a few days later, on Oct. 2, a 43-year-old man was reportedly seriously injured in an additional shooting just two miles from Harbor City.
LAPD homicide investigators linked the three incidents, leading to the Jan. 22 arrest of a suspect in the cases, 20-year-old Wilmington resident Dion Johnson.
“The LA County District Attorney has filed charges with respect to the suspect,” Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Bobby Grace told reporters. “We filed three counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder.” (RELATED: Video Shows People Scrambling For Cover From Fatal House Party Shooting)
“For the 260,000 souls in this district, think of how we are all injured … I represent three communities that had havoc and violence and chaos senselessly wreaked on them,” Councilmember Tim McOsker, who represents the council to which the three affected communities belong, told reporters.
“We all need to work together to get guns out of the hands of cowards who cause this harm in our community,” McOsker added.