STREAM EXCLUSIVE ORIGINALS

Sleeping 8-Year-Old Detroit Boy Shot and Killed

Jakari Pearson was in his bedroom when a bullet struck his chest. Sources said the shooting followed a domestic dispute between Jakari's mother and an unidentified man.

An 8-year-old boy was fatally shot on Wednesday while sleeping in his home on Detroit’s east side, local police said.

At about 1:05 a.m., an unknown person fired several bullets into the residence. One of the bullets went through the bedroom of young Jakari Pearson and struck him in the chest. He was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

According to CBS Detroit, Jakari’s mother was hospitalized for a gunshot wound, although her current condition is unknown.

Sgt. Michael Woody would not share the details of the shooting with the local station, but said the investigators were on the right track to finding the shooter.

"We have a pretty good idea of who it is that we are looking for," Woody told CBS Detroit.

"Unfortunately, we can't talk too much about that just yet as we are in the very early stages of this investigation. We hope the community continues to talk to us and feeds us information so we can track this individual down and get him into custody very quickly."
The shooting allegedly followed a domestic situation between the boy’s mother and a man other than Jakari’s father.

“It’s just crazy that this would happen, you know, there are so many kids that live over here,” neighbor Steven King told reporters. “For someone to shoot into anyone’s home over here, it’s a potential chance that they would hit a kid.”

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(Photo: WXYZ-TV/Detroit, ABC Local News)

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