FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A child has been transported to the hospital with a police escort after being shot inside a Fort Lauderdale home.
Fort Lauderdale Police and Fire Rescue crews responded to the scene at a home along Northwest Second Avenue and 15th Street just after 9:30 a.m., Thursday.
“This morning at approximately 9:30 a.m., the Fort Lauderdale Police Department received a 911 call in reference to a 7-year-old child suffering from a gunshot wound to his head,” Fort Lauderdale Police spokesperson Casey Liening said.
Paramedics transported the 7-year-old boy, identified by family as Brayson, to Broward Health Medical Center in “extremely critical condition,” officials said.
7News cameras captured paramedics wheeling the child into the hospital.
Police are currently investigating the shooting and said the child sustained a single gunshot wound to the head.
“The child is still being worked on by the doctors at Broward Health Medical Center right now,” Liening said.
Officials said two other children were inside of the home at the time of the shooting. The children are reportedly between the ages of 5 and 10 years old.
Police believe the children were alone in a room. It’s unclear where the gun came from.
“The circumstances are still being investigated, but they do not appear to involve any foul play,” said Liening.
Several emotional family members have since arrived at the scene, crying and hugging each other.
D’Angelo Thomas, who lives nearby, saw the 7-year-old child taken out of the home on a gurney.
“You hear the sirens, and you don’t know what’s going on, and you come out and you see the police, and they’re blocking off the street,” Thomas said. “Anytime anybody gets hurt, gets shot, it’s a bad thing, but unfortunately, it’s so common these days to where it don’t really impact us, but anytime you hear a child getting hurt, people tend to stop because we know that’s different.”
Neighbors said that this is not the first time the home descended to chaos. According to police, they have been called to the home more than 70 times in the last six months.
A report from Fort Lauderdale Police detailed each visit, most of which involved a disturbance.
“Six or seven weeks ago at 2:30 in the morning, we got half of Fort Lauderdale out here because there was three shots fired. There was a drive-by,” said one neighbor. “In addition to explosions, chaos, people out there, noise, everybody on this block has had their belly filled with that house.”
Thomas said, “The ambulance came through and they took someone out on a gurney. Just right now with the family being emotional, it’s not a time to ask what happened.”
Cal Miller, a neighbor, said there was a near tragedy not long ago where the Department of Children and Families was called.
“This has been a problem house on our street for months,” Miller said. “The neighbors have been consistently calling the police on that house, the activity, the cars that show up, the groups of people day and night. There was a car with a group of guys in the driveway, and a gun went off by accident, but there was a little boy in the yard.”
Miller also said DCF never followed up on that incident, and now the 7-year-old boy is fighting for his life after getting a gunshot wound to the head.
“How is this allowed to go on? I’m not the only person in the neighborhood that called. We have been calling for months,” he said.
Now, people in the community are hoping and praying for the small child who may not pull through.
“You got to have faith,” Thomas said. “You got to have hope, and right now, that’s what the family needs.”
The prognosis of the 7-year-old child is still unknown.
It is unclear if any adults will be charged.
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