Suspect sought after toddler shot dead in Arkansas road rage

Arkansas police on Sunday were searching for a man suspected of shooting at a grandmother's car and killing her three-year-old grandson in an apparent road rage attack.

The woman was taking the boy shopping in the southwest area of Little Rock on Saturday evening when the suspect, apparently angry because the grandmother paused too long at a stop sign, exited his vehicle and opened fire, said Lieutenant Steven McClanahan of the Little Rock Police Department.

The grandmother, who was driving away when the suspect began shooting, was initially unaware that the boy had been shot, McClanahan said. She drove several miles to a shopping center, where she realized the boy was wounded and called for help, he said.

The victim was pronounced dead at a local hospital. He and the grandmother, who was not injured in the incident, did not know the suspect and were innocent, police wrote in a Twitter message.

Police said the suspect, a black male, fled in a Chevrolet Impala.

Detectives have interviewed the grandmother and canvassed the area of the shooting, but have no further clues about the identity of the shooter, McClanahan said.

The attack marks the second time in less than a month a toddler was killed in Little Rock in a road rage shooting, police said. A two-year-old girl was killed by gunfire on Nov. 22 while riding in the backseat of a car. No arrests have been made in the case.

(Reporting by Laila Kearney; Editing by Alan Crosby)