CHICAGO (AP) - An 8-year-old girl was killed and two adults were severely wounded after they were shot Monday evening in Chicago while traveling in a vehicle on the city’s South Side.
The shooting occurred shortly before 6 p.m. in the Canaryville neighborhood, Chicago Police Chief of Operations Brian McDermott said.
The girl was with her mother and two other adults in a Subaru SUV when they stopped at a red light at 47th Street and Union Avenue, with a Dodge Charger behind them, police said. Once the stoplight turned green, authorities noted that someone in the Charger then opened fire, striking the child, a 31-year-old man and a 30-year-old woman.
The Charger subsequently made a U-turn and fled the area.
McDermott said the child was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
“I stand before you, saddened and angered, that another child has lost their life in senseless gun violence in the city of Chicago,” he told reporters at the scene Monday night.
Chicago fire officials said the man and woman were taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition, with each suffering a gunshot wound to the back.
The mother of the slain child was also wounded in the crash, McDermott said. She was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office hasn’t released details regarding the child’s death. The girl is the sixth child 10 or younger to be killed in Chicago since late June, according to data from the Chicago Sun-Times.
As of late Monday night, at least seven people were killed and 44 others were wounded in shootings across Chicago over the Labor Day weekend.
So far in 2020, figures from the Chicago Tribune show that at least 175 children ages 16 or younger have been shot in the nation’s third largest city, with at least 21 of them dying. Overall, more than 2,850 people have been shot in Chicago this year, at least 464 of them fatally.
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