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Two children who were fatally shot along with a young man inside a car may have been the victims of "a targeted assassination," a Columbus, Ohio, police investigator said.
Columbus police believe the shooters knew 9-year-old Demitrius Wall'neal and 6-year-old Londynn Wall'neal were in the car with 22-year-old Charles Wade when they opened fire on the vehicle in an apartment complex parking lot on December 7. The shooters fired dozens of rounds.
The three victims were pronounced dead at the scene at about 6:45 p.m., The Columbus Dispatch reported. "We have two young kids who have been murdered," Columbus Assistant Police Chief LaShanna Potts said, according to the Dispatch. "This is unacceptable.... This gun violence has got to stop."
Police initially thought Wade was the intended victim. However, the lead homicide investigator for the case, Terry Kelley, told reporters on Tuesday he now thinks the two children could have been targeted as well.
Kelley said he wasn't certain that the shooters didn't care the children were in the car when they wanted to kill Wade or if they intended to kill them as well.
"What I can tell you is I believe that the shooters in this case absolutely knew that those children were in the car," Kelley said. "Whether they were the target of that shooting or not, I can't say 100 percent for sure, but I do believe that they knew they were in the car."
A black Nissan Altima model between the years 2010 and 2012 and with no license plate was seen in footage taken at the apartment complex before the shooting, Kelley said.
Based on the lack of a license plate, police investigators believe that the attack was preplanned and that the shooters had checked the area for surveillance cameras, Kelley said.
Columbus has had 186 homicides so far this year, a new single-year record, the Dispatch reported.
Police said two armed suspects had approached the vehicle and opened fire "without any apparent warning or provocation" before a third suspect drove them away.
Kelley repeatedly urged anyone with firsthand information about who was at the scene to come forward. He added that he hoped that "our community would come forward and say that we will not allow this violence to happen to these kids."
The triple homicide occurred at the parking lot of the Winchester Lakes apartment complex on the southeast side of Columbus.
A prayer vigil was held over the weekend on a bridge in downtown Columbus in memory of the children.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
