Stray bullets kill bystanders as US shootings soar

Washington: A baby in his car seat. A man in bed. A girl walking with her mother: Stray bullets killed each of them days apart as surging gun violence ripples through the United States.

In addition to the people killed in suicides or the homicides hitting record levels in some US cities, an untallied number of other victims are struck by bullets that weren’t meant for them. The deaths can spark fleeting spurts of media and police attention -- similar to the nation’s recurrent horror over mass shootings -- only for the focus to ebb until the next tragedy occurs.

"It happens so regularly," said Chris Herrmann, a gun violence expert at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. "If this happened in a foreign country, it would be headline news."

The southern US city of Atlanta was the scene of two cases this month. A 31-year-old British astrophysicist named Matthew Willson was in bed on January 16 when he awoke to sounds of gunfire outside his girlfriend’s apartment -- and was fatally shot moments later.