Girl, 13, shot in Lawndale

A 13-year-old girl was wounded Sunday in a shooting in Lawndale on the West Side.

About 3:30 p.m., she was on a sidewalk in the 1600 block of South Homan Avenue when two people got out of a burgundy-colored SUV and opened fire, Chicago police said.

She was struck twice in the abdomen and rushed to Stroger Hospital where she was stabilized, police said.

Caution tape lined the east side of Homan Avenue, where police could be seen scouring the area for evidence. What looked like over a dozen shell casings were scattered in front of a home in the 1600 block of South Homan.

Tom Schuba/Sun-Times

Steve Jones, who lives a couple blocks from the shooting, said he did not know the girl, but they both were standing at that corner a few minutes before the gunfire.

“I was walking away, and as soon as I got in the alley, I heard all the shots,” Jones said, adding that it sounded like the gun had a high-capacity magazine.

When he got back, the girl had been taken into the nearby convenience store at the intersection, Jones said.

Martin Elmore, who also lives nearby, said he was on the west side of Homan, on his way to pick up sales papers for the store when the shooting happened.

Elmore said he was stopped by two men who asked to borrow a lighter when one of the suddenly took off. Elmore turned and saw two males — one armed with a gun — coming from the alley across the street.

“I turned around and dived to the ground as I was saying my prayers,” Elmore said. “I thought they were aiming for me.”

Elmore said he heard the shooting stemmed from an altercation between the girl and two males, but he didn’t know she had been shot until afterward.

“I was trying not to get hit,” he said. “You know when gunshots are real close and when to hit the deck.”

No one is in custody as Area Central detectives investigate.

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