Boy, 11, narrowly misses being shot in street fighT

10/24/2010

An 11-year-old boy got a bullet hole in the sleeve of his T-shirt — but was not struck in the flesh — Sunday afternoon when numerous rounds of gunfire were exchanged on a central Toledo street near his home, police said.

“Lucky,” was the word Sgt. William Wauford used repeatedly in telling what happened to Bryce Ragland at about 4:45 p.m. on Vance Street.

Bryce was outside in the 1400 block of Vance about two blocks from his home in the 1200 block when a vehicle drove by and an occupant fired shots. A man walking along the street returned fire, Sergeant Wauford said.

Both the vehicle and the pedestrian were gone when police arrived. Remaining were a bullet hole in the front of the house at 1416 Vance, bullet holes in the back window of a vehicle parked on the street, and the hole in Bryce's sleeve.

The incident might be gang-related, Sergeant Wauford said, but he added that he didn't know last night.

What he did know was this about Bryce: “Kind of a lucky deal that he didn't get struck.”