ATLANTA — Atlanta police are searching for suspects after a 12-year-old boy was killed in a shootout between two groups at an apartment complex in southwest Atlanta Thursday evening.

The incident happened along Cushman Circle, where investigators say the child was an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire.

“There were two groups here at the apartment complex and a conflict occurred between those two groups,” said Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum. “One group returned to a blue car, and once they entered that car and started to drive down the street, they opened fire on the group they had been in an argument with.”

When officers arrived on scene, they found the child critically injured. “Despite the efforts from Grady EMS and Grady Hospital, that child has passed,” Schierbaum said.

A neighbor who lives in the complex and works in the medical field described the heartbreaking scene. “When I got in the apartment, the baby was on the couch, his eyes were open and he was unresponsive,” she said. “I’ve never seen nothing like this, and I hope like hell that they find who did this because that baby didn’t deserve that.”

Police say the suspects fled the scene in a blue vehicle, and investigators are actively working to identify and locate them.

“This neighborhood lost a child, and the city lost a child,” Chief Schierbaum added. “This is what the impact of gun violence is.”

Anyone with information is urged to contact Atlanta Police as the investigation continues.

WSB’s Michelle Wright contributed to this story