An early morning shooting in Boston left a toddler and three others dead, and a fifth person was hospitalised and not expected to survive, police said on Tuesday.
Police responded to the city’s Mattapan neighbourhood just after 1 am local time, Commissioner Edward Davis said.
Two men and a woman found in the street were pronounced dead at the scene.
The toddler, aged either 2 or 3, died later at the hospital, police department spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said. A man in his 30s was taken to a hospital and is not expected to survive, she said.
No names were released, and there were no arrests. It was too early to speculate on a motive, Ms. Driscoll said.
Investigators think the victims knew the shooter, and Mr. Davis appealed to the public for help in apprehending the suspect or suspects.
Police recovered a “significant amount of evidence” at the scene, Mr. Davis said, without getting specific.
The shooting was the latest in a spike of violence in the city that has frustrated, police, politicians and community leaders. There had been 50 homicides in the city as of September 27, according to police department data, up from 40 in the same period last year.
