INDIANAPOLIS — An 11-year-old boy is recovering today after being struck by a stray bullet.
Jataeviuos Ragsdale, who was one of many people shot in the city on July 4 and July 5, was a walk-in patient at Community East Hospital after being struck by a bullet.
According to IMPD, the child was believed to have been hit by a bullet in the 1100 block of N. Tuxedo Street on the near east side.
The boy's father, Arthur Ragsdale, says he and Jataeviuos were visiting family in Indianapolis for the Fourth of July.
"This was their first time visiting Indianapolis," said a cousin who was there when the incident happened.
"We probably wasn't there two minutes, we were standing in my niece's yard lighting fireworks in the street and my son said, 'Dad, my back hurts. Something hit me in the back.' I raised his shirt up and saw the wound," Ragsdale said.
He says he rushed the boy to the hospital, where doctors informed him it was a gunshot wound.
"You don't know where that bullet is coming down, it's got to come down somewhere when shooting these guns," Ragsdale said.
"It's 100% preventable. Someone's reckless behavior, and you know who you are, you're reckless. You have no business owning a gun," added IMPD Chief Chris Bailey.
WRTV also talked to shaken up neighbors who were out celebrating with their kids Thursday night.
“I was sitting right here, and that’s unsettling because that could have been one of my kids," said Daniel Shelton. "I don’t want to go out and it’s sad when you feel like a prisoner in your own home.”
IMPD has not released any additional information regarding this shooting.
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