The father of an 11-year-old boy killed in a mass shooting in Cincinnati that also injured four other children on Friday night used a press conference over the weekend to ask: “When will this stop?”
Issac Davis’ son, identified by the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office as Dominic Davis, was killed when the occupant of a dark sedan opened fire on a crowd of people in the city’s West End neighborhood, police said. A 53-year-old woman was hit in addition to the five minors—boys aged 12, 13, and 15, as well as a 15-year-old girl.
Davis was the only fatality in the shooting. One of the victims remains hospitalized in stable condition while the others have been discharged, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer.
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Authorities have not yet released any information about the suspect or disclosed whether they believe the shooting was a targeted attack. Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval said the group of children was playing outside when the shooting started, with the violence taking place close to a playground and a girls’ dance studio.
“Twenty-two rounds were fired,” Pureval said at a news conference Sunday. “Twenty-two rounds in a moment, into a crowd of kids. No time to respond, no time to react.” He added that the attack “is the reality that these kids had to live through, and the reality and the trauma that they will have to deal with for the rest of their lives.”
During his time to speak at the news conference, Issac Davis asked: “When will this stop? Will this ever stop?” Davis said. “Like how many people have to bury their kids, their babies, their loved ones?” he added.
He also asked for “anybody that knows anything to come forward, please. Just please come forward, we’re begging.” Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge similarly asked the shooter to do the right thing. “Turn yourself in, call a loved one, have them turn you in, because if you don’t, we will find you and we will bring you to justice,” she said.
In the wake of Friday’s shooting, Cincinnati is on its way to its worst year on record for teen shootings. According to the Enquirer, 47 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17 had been shot in the city between the beginning of 2023 and last week. The city has now recorded 50 shootings in that age bracket so far this year, on a par with the previous record set in 2009.
The killings are part of a rising trend of fatal shootings against minors across the U.S., according to the Gun Violence Archive, which has recorded 1,462 firearm killings of children aged 17 and under in 2023.
