Monday night’s shooting on Third Avenue happened on the street where 9-year-old Shariff Benford lives.
“I was right out here playing when I heard a pop like a gun or firecrackers,” Benford said Monday night while standing in her front yard. “I heard that sound and ran inside.”
Shariff Benford and her mom, Freddie Mae Benford, said it’s common for boys to gather on this part of the street, directly behind the Salvation Army and just a block away from the East Lake Courts public housing project.
“These boys are usually trouble,” Freddie Mae Benford said shaking her head.
Police received a call Monday night reporting shots fired on the 28th block of Third Avenue around 7:15 p.m., and by 7:30, a male victim, 19-year-old Johnathon Black, with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to his ankle was loaded into an ambulance.