2-year-old in critical condition after shooting

Child was passenger in car that crashed head-on into tree.

The boywas riding in a car near the intersection of Gettysburg Avenue and James H. McGee Boulevard when the vehicle was fired on about 1 p.m. Thursday,

— A 2-year-old boy DAYTON was reportedly in critical condition after being shot on Christmas Eve while a passenger in a car near the intersection of Gettysburg Avenue and James H. McGee Boulevard in Dayton.

Dayton police said they were looking for a possible suspect, a man known as “Old Boy Nick,” after the shooting about 1 p.m. Thursday, according to Sgt. C.F. Anderson III.

A 2014 Chevrolet Impala carrying the child and two adults crashed head-on into a tree near the Superior Drive-Thru.

Maher Bazaa said he was waiting on a customer at the drive-thru when he saw a man running into the store.

“He took his jacket off yelling, ‘My boy got shot, my boy got shot,’” Bazaa said. “After a few minutes his wife or girlfriend, she came in with the baby in her arms and he was bleeding.”

A private vehicle took all three occupants from the drive-thru to Miami Valley Hospital, and the child was transferred to Dayton Children’s Hospital, according to police.

“Some people who may have known the child’s parents stopped by and took the child to the hospital. The baby was breathing,” Bazaa said.

Police said the child was apparently wounded in gunfire near Blueberry and Gettysburg avenues shortly before the Impala turned the corner at McGee and crashed head-on into a tree along the street in front of the drive-thru.

An apparent bullet hole was visible in the trunk, roughly behind where the child was seated in the car, according to preliminary reports at the scene.

The southbound lane of McGee was blocked off for more than an hour, while police interviewed witnesses, collected evidence and a tow truck

removed the badly damaged car.

The left-front wheel was knocked free and most of the left-front side of the car was smashed, with air bags deployed.

Police said the frontseat passenger had an head injury, while the driver was uninjured in the crash.

Onlookers, including relatives, gathered in a parking lot across McGee from the drive-thru, but declined to comment on what had happened.

“I’ve never seen nothing like that,” Bazaa said. “I’ve been here for three years and that’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen. I hope he survives.”

WHIO-TV Reporter Layron Livingston contributed to this report.