A 2-year-old boy was shot Wednesday night in his Milwaukee bedroom, shown here, while watching cartoons.  The plastic rods were placed by police crime scene investigators and show the path of the bullet into the home, hitting the victim and then the TV stand.  Credit: Michael Sears

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Standing a few hundred feet from a north side home where a 2-year-old boy was shot in the back while watching TV, Mayor Tom Barrett and Police Chief Edward Flynn urged citizens Thursday to help police confiscate guns and pressured state legislators to pass new gun legislation. 

"We need our citizens and our legislators to help us make this a safe city," Barrett said at a news conference at the corner of N. 4th St. and W. Vienna Ave.  Barrett urged citizens who know of others illegally carrying firearms to call police with that information. 

Barrett and Flynn also renewed their call to state legislators and Gov. Scott Walker to pass legislation that would make it a felony for someone who illegally carries a firearm, and to change the law that allows a habitual offender to get a gun permit. 

"In this state, no matter how many times a person is illegally carrying a firearm, it is a misdemeanor," Flynn said. " It is not risky to be arrested for a misdemeanor.  Our criminal community learns nothing from the experience, to be caught by the cops with a firearm." 

Flynn and Barrett both said they planned to press their case for gun legislation on Friday when Walker is expected to be in Milwaukee to sign legislation that provides additional money for the Milwaukee Police Department's ShotSpotter program.  That program employs sensors that capture the sound of gunfire and relay the location to police. 

"Right now, understandably, legislators don't want to touch gun laws because then it's a visit to Crazy Town," Flynn said. " And they are worried about that."  He added that opponents of gun legislation put intense pressure on legislators and are well-financed. 

"We've got to change that calculation," Flynn said. 

Laurel Patrick, Walker's press secretary, said in an email that "Gov. Walker is willing to work with law enforcement and other interested parties to keep illegal guns out of the hands of criminals." 

Family not targeted

Flynn said investigators have reason to believe Wednesday night's shooting in the 3700 block of N. 4th St. was retaliatory in nature and had nothing to do with the family now living there.  The shooting occurred about 9:30 p.m.

Flynn said police responded to the home March 17 after receiving a shots-fired complaint.  He said seven people were arrested and an assault rifle, two fully loaded firearms and narcotics were confiscated. 

"It may be a circumstance in which some other group is retaliating against people they believe may be living there," Flynn said. 

In the incident Wednesday night, police said the boy was sitting at his bedroom desk watching cartoons and waiting for dinner when a bullet fired from the alley behind the house pierced his right side and exited through his stomach.  The boyfriend of the boy's mother was grilling outside; his mother was inside. 

The boyfriend told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that, after hearing a pop, he ran to the boy's room and saw blood.  Another shot was fired, this time at the boyfriend.  It missed. 

"I just feel lost, like I don't understand it.  There's innocent people out here.  He was sitting in his room watching cartoons," the boyfriend said Thursday, declining to give his name. 

The boy underwent surgery Wednesday night and had another scheduled later in the week. 

Young victims rare

Gunfire victims so young are rare in Milwaukee.  Last year, 12% of the city's 532 nonfatal shooting victims were age 17 or younger, with the youngest being 4 years old, according to the Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission's annual report. 

Flynn said that, to date, nonfatal shootings in the city were down 5% compared with the same period last year, gun seizures are up 12% and homicides are down 38%. 

The toddler's family had been in the duplex less than a week, moving in Saturday.  The boy's room was mostly finished.  His desk and bed were set up, a play mat was spread on the floor and a plush chair featuring Lightning McQueen from the movie "Cars" was pushed against a wall. 

The couple decided to move back to Milwaukee from Waukesha to be closer to friends and family. 

"I wish we had stayed out there," the man said. 

He said detectives told him a drug dealer used to live in the residence, though the house was vacant for a month before they moved in. 

"I feel like they took it out on (the boy) because of somebody else," he said. 

The stretch of N. 4th St. where the shooting occurred was quiet Thursday morning, prompting some neighbors, like Benny Hollingsworth, out to their porches. 

"It's nice in the daytime and holy hell at night," Hollingsworth said of the neighborhood. 

Hollingsworth, 59, moved to the street about three months ago from St. Louis to help care for an ailing relative.  Although he hasn't experienced any violence, he heard four gunshots Wednesday night and gunfire the night before that. 

Other recent shootings

Earlier this week, two people were killed and five others were wounded in unrelated shootings in the city. 

Fredricka S. Hodges, 29, was fatally shot Monday while stopped in a car at N. 24th and W. Center streets.  An 18-year-old man was wounded in the incident, in which someone opened fire on a group of people standing on a street corner.  There is no indication that Hodges was among those targeted by the gunfire, police said. 

On Tuesday, a 48-year-old man was shot shortly after 11 p.m. in the 500 block of W. Concordia Ave.  The man, whose identity had not been released as of Thursday, died at the scene, and there were no suspects in custody. 

Milwaukee police have recorded 13 homicides in the city since Jan. 1. 

Four other people have been killed in 2014 in shootings that have been ruled self-defense, according to police. 

Twitter: twitter.com/aluthern