A 3-year-old boy was fatally shot Saturday while riding in a car in southwest Little Rock, police said.
The boy is the second toddler to be fatally shot in Little Rock in the past month. His death is the 40th homicide of the year in the city.
Officers responded at 6:22 p.m. to the Shackleford Crossing shopping center at 2618 S. Shackleford Road to investigate a report that a child had been shot.
They found the injured child in the back seat of a vehicle outside J.C. Penney. The boy was taken to Arkansas Children's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police Chief Kenton Buckner, speaking to reporters at the scene Saturday, said investigators believe the child was shot in southwest Little Rock, not at the shopping center.
Police believe the fatal gunfire came from outside the vehicle.
The boy's grandmother was driving, Buckner said. She was not injured.
Details of the shooting were unclear.
"We're very early in our investigation of this case," Buckner said. "We don't have a lot of information at this time. But we're asking for anyone who has information pertaining to this case, please come forward and help us with this investigation."
Police had not released the boy's identity or named his grandmother late Saturday.
Department spokesman Lt. Steve McClanahan said detectives were interviewing the boy's grandmother. The car she was driving was impounded.
"We will be taking it for a complete forensic examination," McClanahan said.
It was unclear if the woman and her grandson were the only people in the vehicle when the shooting occurred.
No arrests had been made late Saturday.
On Nov. 22, a 2-year-old girl, whom police have not named, was killed by gunfire as she was riding in the back seat of a vehicle driven by her mother, Shunta Johnson, 37.
Someone on South Harrison Street fired into the vehicle as another car was passing, police reported.
No arrests have been made in that case, which was the city's 37th homicide of the year.
Buckner said investigations of both slayings are ongoing.
"This is about as frustrated as you can be as a public safety official, or just a plain citizen who's sitting and watching this tonight, to think that these kind of things are occurring in our city streets," he said.
Information for this article was contributed by Gavin Lesnick of Arkansas Online.
Metro on 12/18/2016