Girl, 7, Shot in Chest While Trick-or-Treating

A 7-year-old Chicago girl who went out trick-or-treating in a bumblebee outfit ended up fighting for her life in Stroger Hospital. Police say the girl was with family members and other trick-or-treaters on a sidewalk in the Little Village neighborhood on the West Side around 5:30pm when she was shot in the chest by a man on the other side of the street, the Chicago Tribune reports. Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi says the girl was apparently an unintended victim, reports the AP. Police say a group of men was chasing another man down the street when one of them fired at the person being chased.

"We heard the shots ... four shots, and I went outside," Lali Lara, who works in a nearby cellphone store, tells the Tribune. "The girl’s father was screaming, 'My little girl’s been shot.'" Lara says she rushed the girl and her family into the store and held the girl's hand while pressing on her chest. The girl was hospitalized in critical condition. Police say a 30-year-old man was shot in the left hand during the incident. It's not clear whether he was the intended victim. "This is unacceptable," police Sgt. Rocco Alioto says. "A 7-year-old girl that was trick-or-treating with her family had to get shot because a group of guys want to shoot at another male." (More Chicago stories.)