A 7-year-old girl was killed in Chicago over a weekend of gun violence

By Deanna Hackney and Susannah Cullinane, CNN

An unknown suspect shot two young girls, killing one and leaving the other “fighting for her life,” as they sat in a parked vehicle on a Chicago street Sunday, according to police.

The suspect fired at the 7-year-old and 6-year-old at approximately 2:50 p.m. while they were in a car on the 6200 block of West Grand Avenue, Chicago Police said.

The 6-year-old girl sustained a gunshot wound to the chest and the right armpit. The 7-year-old was shot in the chest and the torso. Both were transported to Loyola University Medical Center, where the 7-year-old was pronounced dead. The 6-year-old is “fighting for her life,” police said.

At a news conference Sunday evening, Commander Brian McDermott, chief of operations — patrol for Chicago Police Department, said the girls were sisters and that their mother had been putting them in the backseat of the car when they were shot.

He said police did not think the girls or their mother were intended targets of the shooting and asked for the public’s help in finding their shooter or shooters.

“To say that I am sad and outraged would be an understatement,” he said. “Too many young people have lost their lives in senseless gun violence in the city of Chicago.”

As of Sunday evening, 42 people had been shot in Chicago over the weekend, four of them fatally, police said.

Shootings in Chicago have increased by 11% this year compared to 2020 and 63% compared to 2019 pre-pandemic levels, according to an August 3 report by police.

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