Three children as young as 11 shot dead in separate incidents in US within hours

Two boys killed when the van they were in was sprayed with bullets while another was shot at a birthday party

A gun control rally in New York (AFP/Getty Images)

Three children aged between 11 and 14 were shot dead in two different incidents in the US – one of them at a birthday party – within hours of each other.

Two boys were killed when the van they were sitting inside was sprayed with bullets in the car park of an elementary school in Union City, about 30 miles from San Francisco in California.

One of the boys, who was 14, was pronounced dead at the scene while the other, who was 11, died on the way to hospital.

There have been no arrests and police have said they are still trying to establish a motive. The East Bay Times reported that detectives are investigating whether the murders could have been gang-related.

The paper quoted Shirley Sedano, a family member of one of the boys – who have not been publicly identified – saying: "Both of them were such a young age.

"What can an 11- and 14-year-old do to somebody so bad to have 15 to 20 bullet holes in a van? If they're trying to get back at somebody, why target the kids? They're just starting to live their life.

Callers to emergency services said they had heard gunfire close to Searles Elementary School at about 1.26am on Saturday.

In the other incident, another 11-year-old boy died after being shot in the chest at a birthday party in Cleveland, Ohio.

Tyshaun Taylor was shot in an apartment in the east of the city on Saturday evening.

Again, police were yet to make any arrests and no motive for the killing was immediately clear.

Neighbour Willie Gambell told local news station WJW: "He just liked riding bicycles. He was real good. He was a respected kid. When I found out about what happened, I saw his picture and I was like, man, it can't be true, it can't be true.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit data research group, 190 children aged 11 or below have been shot dead in the US in 2019, with another 432 wounded.

Some 689 teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 have been killed by firearms in 2019 with another 2,078 wounded, the group said.

The total number of deaths attributed to gun violence this year is 35,267, of which 13,553 are attributed to homicide or accidents and 21,714 to suicide.