Two 13-year-old boys were tragically shot and wounded near a convenience store in St. Petersburg, Florida, while celebrating Labor Day, a brutal interruption of a day that should have symbolized rest and reprieve from the country’s toils. According to WFLA News, one of the teenagers was peddling a bicycle as the other sat on the handlebars, moments before the incident rendered them hospitalized and in alarming proximity to mortality.
The shooting occurred at the intersection of 22nd Street South and 15th Avenue South just before the evening beset the city, FOX 13 News reported that the event happened shortly before 4:30 p.m; this has been described by witnesses as an unprovoked attack and the victims were declared 'stable' by the police, the suddenness of the violence mirrored the arbitrariness with which fate casts its lots, leaving the shaken community to grapple with the randomness of destruction visited upon its youth. According to FOX 13 News, one of the teens was initially listed in critical condition but both are considered stable at this time.
St. Petersburg Police informed ABC Action News that the shooter fled the scene by car. "This is heartbreaking, especially kids, kids ain't got nothing to do with what’s going on," Hattie McNeal told WFLA.
