The man with the gun burst into the apartment and opened fire. The first victim was a young woman, dead at 21. The second victim was her 25-year-old roommate. But it was the third victim who would cause the most anguished screams when the bodies were discovered. Shot in the head, he was a 6-month-old boy.
The killing of Carlton Stringer Jr. was the first of nearly a hundred such killings of young children in 2012, a year that would include the deaths of 20 students at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
The Newtown killings horrified the country and provoked angry debates over access to the most lethal firearms. A year later, the anger and grief caused by the deaths continue to be felt. So, too, do the ripples from the other killings, of which there were at least 71, bringing the year's total to at least 91, according to an analysis by The Washington Post. The list, which focused on children 10 years of age and under who were victims of a deliberate shooting, was compiled in a search of news databases, federal crime statistics and websites that track violence against children.