Family of Grandfather Shot in Long Beach Speaks Out

A barrage of bullets and people scrambling for cover is how witnesses described a Long Beach shooting that they say left two innocent bystanders critically injured.

The family of the one of the two victims spoke out Wednesday, questioning the violence that left two lifelong friends in critical condition.

“I kept hearing the helicopter and I’m like ‘I wish that helicopter would hurry up and leave,’” recalled Georgia Conley, whose son Steven McCraw was one of two men shot Tuesday night.

Conley never thought the helicopter hovering and the sounds of sirens would hit so close to home.

Then came the call from her daughter.

“She said ‘Mom, we’ve been at the hospital. Steven’s been shot.”

Conley said McCraw was shot on Delta Avenue, just a few blocks from her house. She said her son is a loving grandfather, a family man, and was just an innocent bystander caught in the middle of a senseless shooting.

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“I just hope they can find who did this and why,” she said. “Because when you’re standing there talking to your friends and all of a sudden someone starts shooting. That's crazy. That’s just crazy.”

Witnesses said they heard as many as twenty shots just as McCraw, riding his bike, stopped to chat with a friend on this street corner.

“A lot of people heard it,” said one witness, who did not want to be identified.

People are scared to show their faces, but they want to let the public know that McCraw, whose family fears the shooting may paralyze him, and his friend who was also shot, were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“I just feel like these guys didn’t deserve it. These are good guys, grandfathers. They didn’t deserve anything like this to happen to them.”

Investigators are not releasing many details, but gang detectives are on the case.

Conley had a message for the person who shot her son and his friend.

“I don’t know why. I wish you would come forward turn yourself in,” she said. “Let us know what happened and why it happened.”

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