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Sources say triple shooting was retaliation for 5-year-old's murder
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BATON ROUGE - Multiple sources and people in the community tell the WBRZ Investigative Unit a shooting that left an innocent man dead was intended as payback for the murder of a 5-year-old on River Road last week.
Walter White, 62, was sitting outside of a store on Thomas Delpit Drive when he and two others were shot around 1 o'clock Monday afternoon. White was not the intended target.
On Dec. 10, a 5-year-old boy and his uncle were killed on River Road near LSU following another drive-by shooting.
"I believe Baton Rouge is the most dangerous place," one neighbor said. "They throw bullets like it's candy here."
WBRZ was with White's mother this week as she tried to make sense out of his death. She's currently fighting Alzheimer's disease.
"Why they shot my boy?" she said.
White was a fixture in Old South Baton Rouge. His name is already adorning buildings in the area as the community wishes he rest in peace.
"An innocent bystander getting hit," another neighbor said. "I can't go to the store to hang out for more than 20 minutes. I'm scared to stand up there because any confrontation there's going to be bullets in the air."
Neighbors familiar with what's going on said they don't know how to fix it. City leaders are dealing with the growing concern about what to do too.
"They have to shoot... boom, boom, boom, boom and go," the neighbor said. "It's a controlled area by gangs, neighborhood gangs. People that come here can't stay here. They have to shoot and go."
The rash of gun violence caps off a record year for Baton Rouge. The EBR Coroner's Office is logging homicide numbers and has recorded 160 as of Dec. 14. That does not include another murder Thursday morning on Evangeline Street.
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