FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Three-year-old Rylo Yancy died at Broward Health Medical Center after he was wounded during a drive-by shooting on Sunday afternoon in Broward County, Local 10 learned Monday. Relatives were crying outside of the emergency room.
A crime scene marker showed a bullet hole that damaged a red slide. Yellow crime scene tape surrounded the shaded playground and picnic area on the northern edge of the Riverland Park & Pool and extended to Southwest Ninth Street, near 26 Avenue in Fort Lauderdale.
Sesame-street-themed party decorations in primary colors filled the picnic area. Tiny chairs surrounded a red table. A background for photos and an arch with balloons tumbled down. The disarray was what was left of the sudden panic that ensued during a drive-by shooting.
The 911 dispatch calls reflect the terror. A woman shouts, “A baby just got shot!”
According to Detective Ali Adamson, a spokeswoman for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, police officers first responded shortly after 4:30 p.m. Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue personnel rushed the child as a trauma alert to the hospital.
Back at the park, Fort Lauderdale police officers were looking around inside the fenced playground after the shooting. Detectives talked to witnesses.
Neighbors who heard the gunshots said they were afraid. The shooting was near athletic fields and pools. It was also near the Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Station 47, and two schools.
Police confirmed that detectives recovered one of the cars involved in the shooting, but no arrests have been made.
Detectives asked anyone with information about this or other cases to call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.
Local 10 News Assignment Desk Editor Mercedes Cevallos and Photojournalist Matthew Leach contributed to this report.