As a 4-year-old girl recovered from a gunshot wound Wednesday, a relative told the Sun-Times the girl had been combing her doll’s hair on the front stoop of a vacant building in Englewood when a stray bullet hit her.
The relative, who asked not to be named, said her cousin’s daughter was hit in the arm when shots were exchanged between two cars in the 600 block of West 61st Street around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.
“She had a little doll in her hand and she was combing the doll’s hair,” the relative said.
The girl’s father drove her to Saint Bernard Hospital, and she was transferred in good condition to Stroger Hospital.
The two cars both fled east. Police reported no arrests and have released no description of the cars or suspects.
Detectives were trying to recover video from private security cameras that might have captured the shooting, police said.
A witness told reporters on the scene that people near the girl “ducked her down behind a car.”
The man said one of the shots shattered the front passenger window of his car. “It almost hit me in the head,” said the man, who asked not to be identified. ”It was coming from everywhere. And I just heard the little girl screaming.”
Anna Johnson, who lives on the block, owns a car that was also damaged by gunfire.
“I’ve been here 15 years, I ain’t never seen anything like this,” Johnson said. “You got young people carrying guns, I’m talking about 13, 14, 15, and they can’t even aim straight.”
Another neighbor, a 59-year-old woman who asked not to be named, said she heard about 15 shots. She’s had enough.
“They need to stop, they killing babies and it’s not right. Everybody deserves a chance to live a life and make good of it,” she said. “They got me spooked, and I thought I was hardcore.”
