Two children, just 7 and 4 years old, as well as an adult male, were shot and wounded in a drive-by shooting Wednesday evening in Newark.  

The shooting happened just before 6 p.m. along Irvine Turner Boulevard, near West Kinney, right by the Community Hills Housing Complex.

A security guard working the site told News 12 New Jersey’s Chris Keating he witnessed a drive-by shooting, and apparently the car involved was stolen from nearby Kearny.  

The victims, an adult male, the two kids and their mother, were driving a Jeep Cherokee. The mother was behind the wheel and the man in the passenger seat.

That's when the security guard says another car drove up and started firing into the driver side of the car. Security guard Lamont Lanham says he heard the shots and ran to the car in the middle of the street.

"As I walked over to the car the father opened the door and asked can I help get him to the hospital because he might not make it, and I heard the kids crying,” says Lanham. “I looked in the back and I see blood on one of the kids and I guess it was the 4-year-old not moving at the time. Then asked the mother can she drive and blazed a path to the hospital to get him there."

Lanham says he got in his car and turned on his lights and got them to University Hospital. News 12 does not yet have a description of the car or the alleged shooter.  

Newark Public Safety Director Brian O’Hara says the car involved in the shooting was stolen, saying in a statement, “We are saddened and outraged that two boys, one 4-year-old and one 7-year-old, were shot tonight while riding in a car with their mother and another adult. The shooter was using a car stolen from Kearny that was left unlocked with the key inside. We need people everywhere to stop leaving their cars unlocked with the key in them. This kind of carelessness is repeatedly contributing to violence and enabling more serious harm to occur in our communities.”

The adult male is believed to be in his 30s.