7-year-old in bumblebee costume shot while trick-or-treating
A 7-year-old girl trick-or-treating in a bumblebee outfit was critically injured Thursday night during a shooting on Chicago's West Side. A video that has since gone viral shows trick-or-treaters running as the shots rang out.
The gunfire began when a group of men started chasing a 31-year-old man and began firing, according to police News Affairs Sargent Rocco Alioto. That man, who was shot in the hand, was taken to a local hospital where he's in stable condition.
But two of the bullets hit the 7-year-old girl, who was out collecting candy with her family. Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford says the girl was shot in the lower neck area Thursday and was taken by paramedics to a local hospital. Alioto said she's in critical condition.
"This is unacceptable," Alioto said. "It's a 7-year-old girl that's trick-or-treating with her family out here, and happens to get shot." Police said the girl has no relationship at all to the 31-year-old man, CBS Chicago reports.
"We heard the shots ... four shots, and I went outside," Lali Lara, who works in a nearby cellphone store, told the Chicago Tribune. "The girl's father was screaming, 'My little girl's been shot.'"
The Chicago Tribune reported that police said the girl was dressed as a bumblebee. Lara told the newspaper she held the girl's hand and pressed against her chest to stop the bleeding.
"She was looking at me, and I was calling her name, " Lara said. "I have kids — I would go crazy if something happened to my kids."