A 1-year-old baby boy was killed after his relative’s Wisconsin home became the inadvertent target of a shooting, Milwaukee police said Monday.
The boy’s family was spending time together two days after Christmas when dozens of shots were fired into the house Saturday night, CNN affiliate WISN reported.
Bill Thao was closest to the window when he was hit by a bullet that appeared to have read “to whom it may concern,” a police official told the television station.
The boy’s cousin Kou Thao, told KTLA sister station WITI that BIll had just arrived at the home 15 minutes prior to the shooting.
He was among several children who had been playing with toys when the gunfire erupted.
“He was standing, playing with toys on a table,” Thao said. “We got some adults from the Vietnam War. When they heard the shots they just grabbed all the kids and put them down, so that really helped.”
Bill was transported to a children’s hospital where he was later pronounced dead.
The 13-month-old had just started walking, Thao said.
Police believed the family was not the intended target and were deeply concerned about what had been written on the bullet, according to the station.
“This is concerning to all of us and it should be to this neighborhood and this community,” Milwaukee police Capt. Aaron Raap said.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett added that whoever shot at the home had “no moral compass.”
“Clearly, anybody who would do what happened here yesterday has no moral compass,” Barrett said. “Dozens, Dozens of bullets into a home filled with people who had nothing to do with whatever they were mad about.”
No arrests have been made. The shooting remained under investigation on Monday.
CNN contributed to this story.
