3-Year-Old And Father In Stable Condition After Gang-Related Shooting, Police Say
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A toddler was eating a bag of chips on a hot summer day when she was shot twice, once in each leg.
Chicago Police officers that arrived first to the scene drove the three-year-old girl to Comer Children's Hospital to be treated as quickly as possible.
Police say the three-year-old was walking with her dad in the Back of the Yards neighborhood when gunfire broke out in broad daylight.
Jaimie Perez walked past the father/daughter duo moments before the shooting.
"She waved. She was happy-go-lucky, not a care in the world," recalled Perez.
Just seconds later, Perez says the girl and her father were shot.
"I just saw her drop. That's when I turned. That's what I saw," he said. "The little girl got hit, one in each knee and he got one in the foot."
Police say a man walked up to the 34-year-old dad just before 3 p.m. Wednesday near Damen and 48th Street and started shooting, before running to a waiting black sedan.
The three-year-old girl was shot twice, once in each leg. Police say her father, a documented gang member, was hit in the foot.
"The male victim who is well known to CPD, we believe, was the intended target," stated Sgt. Mike Malinowski.
"It really needs to stop because if he is with his child, you are jeopardizing a child. A child got shot; someone who had nothing to do with whatever the situation may be," said Veronica Shirley, a family friend of the victim.
Mixed in with the shell casings on the street was a bag of chips witnesses say the three-year-old was eating as she was shot.
"Everybody who is in gangs, don't use your kids as shields," stated Perez.
The little girl and her father were last listed in stable condition.
No arrests have been made at this time.
