Toddler sleeping in his carseat killed by a stray bullet

WU FAMILY

Jaspar Wu would have been 2-years old next month.

 

A 23-month old toddler was killed by a stray bullet Saturday.

Jasper Wu was sleeping in his carseat as his mother was driving on a freeway in Oakland California when he was struck in the head by a bullet.

The fatal bullet came from an apparent shootout between two cars on Interstate 880 , according to the California Highway Patrol. Jasper's mother, two other adults and two other children in the car were unhurt.

Authorities said that they did not believe that anybody in the car was a target of the shooters.

The family were returning to their Fremont home from San Francisco when the gun battle occurred on the freeway. The unidentified shooters fled the scene. 

First responders rushed Jaspar to Oakland's Children's Hospital where he died.

Monday afternoon, family and friends held a small ceremony on the side of the freeway where Jaspar was shot.

Jasper's father, Jihao Wu, is on his way back from China to bury the son he had never met. Before Jasper was born, the father went back to China when the pandemic began and was not able to return to the U.S. because of travel restrictions. 

Because of Jasper's death, his father was able to get permission to re-enter the U.S. to make arrangment's for his son's funeral.

At a CHP press conference Monday, authorities were unable to reveal any specifics about potential suspects, authorities did provide one important new detail.

“The investigation led to evidence that the shots that were fired likely originated on the northbound side of Interstate 880 and randomly struck the victim’s vehicle,” said CHP Capt. Mike Lehman.

CHP did ask that anyone who was traveling in that area of Oakland on I-880 Saturday afternoon to check their dash camera video to see if they might have captured images related to the incident.

Jasper’s mother, Cherry an, pleaded assistance from the public.  

“I want to call on the public to help me find the killers,” said An. “I don’t want such a tragedy to happen to another person again.”

The Chinatown Chamber of Commerce set up a Go-Fund-Me page at the request of the family to raise money for funeral expenses.