An 8-year-old Ohio girl was fatally shot late Friday night during a backyard teen birthday party in Akron, according to police and local reports.
The shooting came about 11:45 p.m. at a home on Roselle Avenue, between East Avenue and Manchester Road, police said. Police said a large group of teenagers gathered at the house and an unknown gunman fired gunshots into the house from outside, police said.
Around 11:45 p.m. little Mikayla Pickett was struck in the back when gunfire erupted in the Sherbondy Hill neighborhood of Akron, police said.
A large group of teenagers gathered at the house and an unknown gunman fired gunshots into the house from outside, according to the police report.
Willie Walker, 62, told the Akron Beacon-Journal that he was hosting a birthday bash for his 15-year-old grandson in his backyard when the shooting occurred.
“All hell broke out,” he said.
Three or four people showed up at the property and started firing at family members and friends who were at the celebration, said Walker, who was inside the house when the gunfire started.
He said he didn’t know the girl who died.
Police officers found shell casings at the scene. “I don’t know how many shells they took,” Walker said. “A lot of them.”
A neighbor, who declined to give her name, said a couple of windows were shot out at the home of her son, who lives next door to her.
“I heard I don’t know how many shots,” she said. She said when she felt safe enough to look outside, she expected, based on the gunfire, to see a lot of bodies on the ground.
She said there was another shooting in the neighborhood Wednesday or Thursday, when someone fired into another home on the street. She also found two shell casings in her driveway last week.
According to a report by the Akron Beacon Journal, Akron police track murders in the city, excluding killings such as unintentional homicides. This is the 31st murder that police are investigating in 2020.
Detectives have made no arrests and are still investigating.