
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 31, 1990                   TAG: 9007310448
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium

FOURTH N.Y. CHILD KILLED IN 9 DAYS

A 9-month-old boy was killed in his family's apartment by shots fired through the door, the city's fourth young victim of a stray bullet in a little more than a week.

Earlier Monday, mourners packed a church for the funeral of 9-year-old Veronica Corales, who was shot in the head as she slept in a family car.

Mayor David Dinkins seized on the slayings to call for a federal ban on all assault weapons.

"Do we need further proof of what happens when we allow so many people to be armed with so many guns firing so many bullets?" he asked.

"Our children are dying. These young people, these babies, had the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but their rights have been blown away. And for what?"

The latest victim, Rayvon Jamison, was in a walker when he was struck in the shoulder by two of seven shots pumped into the apartment, police said. Nine adults, including his mother, were home at the time.

Capt. John Creegan said police believe the shooting stemmed from an argument between an uncle and at least two other people. No one was arrested immediately.

Rayvon's slaying in a working-class, black and Hispanic neighborhood in the Bronx was the fourth in New York City in nine days of a child hit by a bullet apparently meant for someone else. The three other slayings occurred in Brooklyn.

"It's crazy. You're not safe in your own house no more," said Ramon Garcia, who lives across the street from where Rayvon was shot.

Veronica was struck July 22 by a stray bullet as she slept in her mother's lap in a parked car.

Shortly after her funeral, an indictment was unsealed charging Dorian Daughtry, 22, a former minor league baseball player, with murder in the slaying.

One-year-old Yaritimi Fruto was killed last week by gunmen who also killed her father. Ben Williams, 3, also was killed last week when someone fired 18 shots through the door of his grandmother's apartment while he slept on a fold-out couch.

by CNB