Vaniece Rutherford

An innocent one-year-old and his father were attending a music video shoot around 6 p.m on Monday, Nov. 28. The parking lot was occupied by at least 20 people when the most unexpected thing happened.

After the music video shoot, at least 3 suspects came around a corner and opened fire on the crowd of people. The shooting left 8 people injured, including a one-year-old and his father. The 1 year old died after 11 days in the hospital; two others were critically injured but recovered, while others had non life-threatening injuries.

“This is outrageous, this violence has gone too far,” said Donte Johnson,17, who spends a lot of time in the neighborhood. “We need to come together as a whole and stop the violence.”

The family pleaded for more time, but ultimately permitted the doctors of Children’s Hospital Oakland to take the one-year-old off of life support due to tests that showed him being brain-dead and legally deceased. The parents of baby Hiram Lawrence, Jr., maintained hope for his recovery until the end.

“He’s only 1, not 20 or 25,” said the mother, Brittany Huston in the days while her son was still on life support, according to the Bay Citizen. “He’s a baby. If Hiram had more time to recover, come out of shock, he would come home. He’s showing progress. I just think he needs more time.”

Five persons have been detained as people of interest in the case.

The father drove himself and his son to the hospital , and all other victims were transported by other attendees of the video shoot before authorities had arrived on the scene.

According to San Francisco Chronicle, in the immediate hours after the shooting, Hiram Lawrence, the father of the child, reportedly said he would not be talking to police but later began cooperating with police. He said he hoped to receive justice for his son Hiram Lawrence, Jr.

“My little man is fighting. He’s all I got,” Lawrence said during his son’s hospital stay. “Please, please pray for him.”

The mother, Huston, lashed out verbally against assailants, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

“They didn’t get a man. They didn’t get a teenager,” Huston said. “They got a toddler, a one-year-old. He hasn’t even been here long enough. He doesn’t even know what’s going on. He shouldn’t have to go through this.”

Baby Hiram is not the first toddler to have to pay a high price due to gun violence in the year of 2011. In August of this year, three-year-old Carlos Nava was gunned down in East Oakland. He was no way affiliated with the two intended targets who were also shot but survived. Nava was only in the neighborhood with his family when he was hit by a stray bullet. He was later pronounced dead at Children’s Hospital where baby Hiram also died.

“This is the second toddler injured by gun violence this year,”said Keeda Robinson, 20, of West Oakland. “ We need help in our community. We should not allow our babies to suffer from other people’s senseless behavior.”

The shooting was caught on the liquor store surveillance camera. In the shooting of baby Hiram and several others police have identified the motive to be a long time feud between two low-income neighborhoods in West Oakland: Campbell Village and Acorn.