KANSAS CITY, KS (KCTV) -
Police are looking for a car that may have been involved in a shooting that injured a 4-year-old boy.
Officers think a silver or blue Chrysler 300 may have been involved in a rolling gun battle Saturday night near 18th Street and Parallel Parkway after, authorities say, two people in two cars were shooting at each other.
A stray bullet from that shooting hit 4-year-old Markell Hall Jr. in the stomach. His family said he is still in the hospital, but up and laughing and smiling.
Neighbors say they were getting ready for a birthday party for the 4-year-old's mother.
"I heard what I thought was a wreck at first, but then we heard gunshots. We ran in the house, but we thought someone got hit. I didn't know it was the little boy," Denise Brown said.
Brown found out just minutes later that two people were hit, including a family friend and the 4-year-old.
Family members say Markell was playing in the trees in the front yard of a home in the 1700 block of Stewart Avenue. When the shooting started, a family friend rushed to get him to safety, but that is when the bullet went through the man's hand and hit the boy in the stomach.
Markell's dad rushed him to the hospital.
"We had another little girl by us. I was scared. There were a bunch of kids with us," Brown said.
Doctors told Markell's mother if the shot had not been slowed down by family friend's hand, things would have been much worse for Markell.
"It is stupid. It is very ignorant. There is a bunch of kids out here playing, of all places they chose right here. Toys and everything. That was really stupid," Brown said.
The Kansas Highway Patrol found a car with a window shot out in the area of North 57th Street and Kaw Drive that is believed to have been involved in the shooting.
Kansas City, KS, Police Department's Major Case Unit is encouraging anyone with information regarding the shooting to call 913-573-6020 or the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS.
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