Chicago shooting: 11-year-old girl critically wounded in West Englewood
CHICAGO (CBS) -- An 11-year-old girl was shot and critically wounded Sunday evening in the West Englewood neighborhood.
Police said, shortly before 4 pm., the girl was shot in the head while inside a home in the 2000 block of West 68th Place. The shooter fired from outside the home.
The girl's brother said he and other family members were in their backyard, when they walked across a neighbor's lawn to avoid a muddy area in their own yard, as they were going inside their own house.
The neighbor then came out of his house and started shouting at them. The girl's brother said, after the family got inside, the neighbor fired shots at the house, hitting his 11-year-old sister in the head. The family has identified the girl only as Deajah B.
A Chicago Fire Department spokesperson confirmed the girl's family took her to St. Bernard Hospital. She was then transferred to Comer Children's Hospital in critical condition.
"Her family is going through the most unimaginable thing right now, and we need the support of the city," CPD Area 1 Detectives Division Cmdr. Arleseuia Watson said. "My main concern is the safety and well-being of the child, and I want the city to pray."
Neighbor Latriece Pierce has called the block home all her life. She even considers neighbors family.
"I speak to them, they speak to me," she said.
That is why rushed to the door when she heard her neighbor had been shot.
"They are nice people, and to see one of them to be shot in the head by a neighbor, the next-door neighbor, it's just sickening. It don't make no sense," Pierce said. "Who would do that? Like, why would you shoot a little girl? And to come to find out it's the next-door neighbors, it was just even more crazier."
Police said they were questioning two people Sunday evening. A gun was recovered at the scene.
"I can only imagine not only her principal, but her teachers, but her classmates; once they see this, and they find out, they're going to wonder 'Will I get shot next?' Because this is not normal," Ald. Stephanie Coleman (16th) said.
Watson asked anyone with information on the shooting to call Area 1 detectives at 312-747-8380.
Community activist Andrew Holmes lamented that it was the second child shot inside a home in Chicago this weekend.
A 10-year-old boy was seriously wounded Friday night when he was shot in the chest inside a house in the 1100 block of East 91st Street. Police said three people fired from outside the house.
"Both these children should be in school tomorrow with a book, not in a hospital with a bullet," he said. "Stop protecting these individuals that are discharging these weapons. We are finding that it's more women protecting the males. How about protecting your children? If that gun is brought into your home, and a male has brought that gun into your home, and he discharged that weapon, what about your children?"
