Photo provided by family members
Marsha Mayes talks to reporters
Home where Nizzel George died
MINNEAPOLIS - A child is dead after a stray bullet ripped through a wall and struck him while he slept in Minneapolis Tuesday morning.
A Minneapolis Police spokesman says the boy, who is believed to be 5 or 6 years old, was sleeping on a couch in a home on the 4500 block of Bryant Avenue North when gunfire erupted shortly after 8:30 a.m.
Adults in the home called 911 and the child was rushed to North Memorial Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
There were a number of other adults and children inside the house at the time the child was shot. One adult received minor injuries from fragments or material deflected by the bullet but no one else was affected.
Police on the scene are interviewing a number of people but say at this point no one has been arrested or is in custody.
The shooting scene is approximately 20 blocks from the home where 3-year-old Terrell Mayes was fatally shot exactly six months ago.
Terrell's mother Marsha Mayes showed came to the neighborhood to talk to reporters about Tuesday's senseless death of the young child and her son's murder, which remains unsolved.
"Surreal," she told reporters. "Now this baby. It's wrong."
Mayes says she makes her remaining kids stay inside in an attempt to keep them safe but adds that the two shootings prove that people in north Minneapolis aren't safe anywhere.
"All I can say to 'em is, another one," Mayes said, when asked about what she told her survivng children when they asked about Tuesday morning's murder. "They say 'mama, the same way?' I say yes, the same way. They say 'mama, when's it gonna stop?' What can you tell em, nothing but stay in the house. Staying in the house ain't even good. Look what happened."
There remains a $10,000 reward for anyone who provides information that leads to a conviction in the death of Terrell Mayes. That information can be shared by calling 612-692-TIPS.
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