Social media video shows celebratory gunfire toward busy road with toddler nearby
By Zoe Blair
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PLEASANT GROVE, Alabama (WVTM) — In a video shared by the Pleasant Grove Police Department, a group of men are seen firing high-powered rifles towards Park Road on New Year’s Eve, striking a car. A toddler is shown in the video, surrounded by gunfire.
Police Chief Daniel Reid called the video terrifying for several reasons.
“There’s a child there, just feet away, and what is this saying to the child?” Reid asked. “As a parent of a very small child, this has got to be terrifying to the child. I mean, do they not consider the child?”
Reid believes exposing a child to activities like this at such an early age causes them to grow up thinking this violence is OK.
“You have some horrendous parenting,” he said. “I mean, why are we going to bring our child out here to something like this with no hearing protection, and like I keep harping on, we’re teaching this child that this is what you’re supposed to do. Talking to people associated with this, they say they grew up doing this. They’d go out in the backyard with their mom and dad and do this on New Year’s Eve.”
Reid said he’s also concerned about where the shooters are aiming. According to him, the shooters thought they were shooting into the woods, but that wasn’t the case.
“Where they’re shooting is in an elevated position, and below them is an active roadway, one of the most busy roads we have in Pleasant Grove,” he said. “They’re shooting from there down into the roadway, and a vehicle was hit as it was driving by, struck in the passenger side.”
Though nobody was hurt in this case, Reid said the bullets were just inches away from ruining lives.
“People die as a result of it,” he said. “People get hit, people get hurt, and it ruins everybody’s life. A person driving down the road gets hit and gets killed, yeah, that ruins them and their family’s life, but also the person out there shooting, they don’t necessarily intend to shoot people.”
Lajuan Collins, 39, can be seen in the video wearing a blue and white plaid shirt shooting towards Park Road. He was arrested Friday and faces charges of reckless endangerment and discharging a firearm in city limits.
The Pleasant Grove Police are working to identify the other shooters seen in the video.
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