“We just have to be this way all the time,” she said. “We’ve got to get in front of this … we can’t be losing our babies.”

At a news conference earlier Tuesday, interim Police Chief William Smith said detectives “have little information to go on” as the authorities investigate the shooting. “We have had a number of tips, but we need more,” he said.

The children were part of a large community cookout that was happening in the park when an argument and gunfire broke out about 7:20 p.m. Sunday among a separate group at the basketball court and skateboard park at the far end of the park at 27th and Perry streets.

“They were completely innocent [bystanders],” Smith said of the two victims.

There were two off-duty Richmond police officers who had been hired as security for the cookout, Smith said. He asked anyone with video from the gathering or who might have seen or heard the argument to contact police.