Boy, 9, injured in shooting after dispute at South Florida shopping plaza

LAUDERHILL, Fla. — A 9-year-old boy who was an innocent bystander was wounded on Monday when gunfire erupted in the parking lot of a South Florida shopping plaza, authorities said.

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According to the Lauderhill Police Department, the shooting occurred outside of a Fresco y Mas supermarket, located within the Lauderhill Mall, at about 10:30 a.m. EDT, WPLG-TV reported.

In a news release, police department spokesperson Lt. Antonio Gonzalez said that an argument in the parking lot led to gunfire, according to the Sun-Sentinel.

Neither the child nor his family was involved in the dispute, Gonzalez said.

The boy was shot in his right ankle and was taken to Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale for treatment, the newspaper reported. He is expected to recover, Gonzalez said.

“My son is an innocent bystander, you know, we just going in to go to the grocery store and that was it,” the boy’s mother told WSVN-TV. “When I pulled up my son, he said, ‘Ma, I just got shot in my foot.’”

A witness to the shooting, Katrina Hamilton, helped tend to the injured boy.

“We put the compression on it until the paramedics came,” Hamilton, who is a nurse, told the television station.

Hamilton told WPLG that the boy’s mother was “panicking.”

“His mom was panicking. His two sisters -- they (were) freaked out, like past freaked out,” Hamilton said. “I was doing my best to keep them calm.”

“Blood was just everywhere.”

Gonzalez said three cars were involved in the incident, the Sun-Sentinel reported. The driver of one of the vehicles, a black Chevrolet SUV, returned to the plaza and is cooperating with detectives, according to the newspaper.

The other cars involved were a white Toyota and a white Chevrolet SUV, Gonzalez said.

“They (were) arguing about the ‘no parking’ fire zone,” Hamilton told WPLG. “I guess both of them tried to park, they collided a little bit together. A (few) scratches on the cars so she was talking about her scratches on the car. The guy was so upset and he’s jumping out (of) the car. He was like ‘I’ll shoot this (expletive) up!’ and stuff like that.”

An investigation is ongoing.

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