UPDATE: Riviera Beach police have identified the victim of the homicide as Dequan Anderson.
EARLIER:
Police are investigating a Sunday afternoon shooting in Riviera Beach that left a 17-year-old dead.
It's happened around 1 p.m. at an apartment complex on West 30th Street and R.J. Hendley Avenue Sunday afternoon.
Mayor Thomas Masters said Sunday night that feeling of loss has been felt far too often in his city.
“I invite the president to come in…and if he has resources that he wants to share or technology, or the Justice Department, or whatever it takes,” he says.
His city is desperate for answers after yet another young victim is lost to soon.
“This cannot be how we identify Riviera Beach,” Masters says.
When police were called to the apartment and found the shooting victim, he was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Investigators said the city's "shot-spotter" technology indicates two parties shooting at each other -- one from the ground and one from the balcony.
It's a step backward in a city that made a giant step forward a few days ago.
Earlier this month, police arrested three suspects in connection to the December shooting death of 15-year-old Makayla Dennard.
Masters said the city is trying to push forward with initiatives to keep neighbors safe -- from youth mentoring to gun buy back programs.
“These are our children,” he says. “We have to find a way to reach them. Train up a child when he is young, and when he's old he will not depart.”
The mayor says he knows it's a problem that won't be a quick fix.
“I almost kind of look at it as a war,” he says. “We're in a war, we're in a battle.”
Anyone with related information to Sunday’s shooting is asked to contact Riviera Beach Police on (561) 845-4123 or Crime Stoppers on (800) 458-TIPS.