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AHOSKIE – A five-year-old child suffered non life-threatening injuries after being shot here early Wednesday morning.

Ahoskie Police Chief Jimmy Asbell said the child was seated with its mother and another minor juvenile inside of a vehicle after the family had arrived at their residence on South Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive at around 12:40 a.m.

“From what we later learned, the father had exited the vehicle and was in his yard when two black males, who were walking in the street, began yelling obscenities at the father,” Asbell said. “At that point, at least one of the suspects opened fire with a weapon, apparently aiming at the father.

“The father then ran inside his home and activated an alarm,” Asbell continued.

Upon activating the alarm, the father retrieved a weapon from inside the residence.

“He was then advised of the injuries sustained by the child in the car. At that point he got back in the car and took the injured child to ECU Roanoke-Chowan Hospital,” Asbell said.

Asbell said the officers responding to the alarm in the 400 block of South Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive were not aware that a shooting had occurred there.

“We were dispatched because of the alarm at that residence,” Asbell explained. “Upon the arrival of the officers, they discovered no one was at that residence. A short time later we were notified by the hospital of a gunshot victim had been taken there by private vehicle. After an officer went to the hospital to investigate, that’s when we learned what had transpired at the residence prior to the father activating the alarm.”

Asbell said the only description of the suspects were that one was wearing a dark colored hoodie and the other was in a white t-shirt. He asked if anyone living in that neighborhood or passing by to call the Ahoskie Police Department (252-332-5011) if they saw or heard anything suspicious.