Teenager and two boys fatally shot in Pennsylvania

A 19-year-old man and two boys, ages 8 and 9, were fatally shot outside a house in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday night, police said.

A 33-year-old man was also shot and was recovering from surgery Wednesday, Lebanon Mayor Sherry Capello said at a news conference.

The 8-year-old and 9-year-old were both public school students in Lebanon, a city of about 26,000 residents about 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

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Lebanon police Chief Bret Fisher said that someone who was considered a person of interest in the shooting had been taken into custody on “an unrelated matter.”

“It appears at the early stages of this investigation that one of the victims was targeted,” Fisher said at the news conference, although he declined to say which of the victims it was. “The other three victims were uninvolved.”

The chief also did not say what might have led to the shooting, which was reported to police at 10:06 p.m. Tuesday.

Fisher said that some of the victims were related and that there were other people in the house at the time of the shooting.

“These shootings are unacceptable,” Capello said. “As a mom, I cannot overstate how heartbroken I am for the families. I cannot imagine what the families are going through right now. It is unimaginable.”

Capello said that Lebanon has low rates of gun violence compared with other cities. The city has recorded one to three cases of murder and manslaughter in recent years, according to a state website that collects crime statistics.

Research has shown that gun violence has surpassed car accidents as the leading cause of death for American children. In 2021, nearly two-thirds of gun deaths involving children — 2,279 — were homicides.