Senseless shootings harm boy and community

At Sunday Mass at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, Pastor Joe Connolly always blesses the children gathered near the altar.
It’s moving to watch the procession of innocents.
Four-year-old Davien Martinez was usually among them.
The same Davien Martinez who is recovering in All Children’s Hospital after being shot in the head by a stray bullet following an exchange of gunfire between two vehicles near the boys’ home off 26th Street West.
That was July 27.
Such a senseless act of violence is heartbreaking, especially on a little boy.
Yet little did we know.
It would be the first salvo of a series of outrageous shootings over a nine-day period that have rocked our community.

Read more Sunday in Mannix About Manatee on Bradenton.com.