SUFFOLK, Va. – A four-year-old boy was killed in a shooting inside a home on Pine Street in Suffolk Sunday night.
Police have arrested a suspect in connection to the toddler’s death, but the circumstances surrounding the shooting are unclear.
According to police, the shooting happened inside a home in the 200 block of Pine Street near W. Finney Avenue.
The 911 call came in around 9 p.m.
Suffolk Fire and EMS crews treated the boy at the scene and rushed him to the hospital, but he did not survive.
“It’s very unfortunate,” said a Suffolk resident who works nearby the shooting scene. “I mean, things like that shouldn’t happen here, but unfortunately they do.”
Investigators charged Antonio Lonnell Melton, 38, of Suffolk, with second-degree murder; use of a firearm in the commission of a felony; possession of a firearm by a violent felon; and reckless handling of the firearm.
Police could not say what Melton’s relationship is with the boy and what led up to the shooting.
Several neighbors who live and work in the neighborhood are outraged.
“You don’t do that to no children. It makes me hot,” said Tim Pelham of Suffolk.
Pelham, who was born and raised in the city, said shootings in the area are becoming all too familiar.
“You’d be surprised what you might see out here now,” he said. “You used to walk out the door 25, or 30 years ago and go back in there without nothing happening. But now, it’s something happening every day out here.”
People who live and work in the neighborhood said they want to see more police patrolling the area.
The shooting is still under investigation.
Melton is being held at the Western Tidewater Regional Jail.
The Suffolk Police Department is asking anyone with information leading to this incident to call 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.
