BATON ROUGE – Homicide investigators are spending Christmas Eve looking into whether or not a teenager’s slaying earlier in the day could be related to earlier violence in East Baton Rouge.

Gervonte Taplin, 17, appears to have been targeted – shot and killed by someone who was able to enter the boy’s Millerville area home a few hours before sunrise Tuesday. The shooter appears to have entered the home and gone straight for the bedroom where Taplin was with his ten-year-old brother who was grazed by a bullet in the altercation.

The younger child survived the shooting and has been released from the hospital.

A frantic call for help from the father telling 911 operators he was trying to stop the bleeding from the teenager sent a swarm of emergency personnel, sheriff’s deputies and the District Attorney’s office to the scene on Turret Drive around 5 a.m. Tuesday.

Taplin was hit by gunfire multiple times and died as a result of his injuries, authorities said.

The gunfire erupted shortly after the boys’ mother left for work, WBRZ learned. The father and the two boys are believed to be the only ones inside the home when the shooter entered and opened fire.

The father was not injured.

Click here for the latest update on this fatal incident.