A 15-year-old boy was charged Friday night with attempted murder in the suspected gang-related shooting of two people on Chicago's West Side, including a 7-year-old girl out trick-or-treating in a bumblebee costume when she was shot in the neck and critically injured. The shooting Thursday night was another grim example of children in the city being caught in the crossfire while doing normal activities like walking down the street, sitting on a porch, or laughing with friends inside a house. Investigators think the 7-year-old girl was shot in a gang-related attack, reports the AP. The man believed to be the target was a 30-year-old shot in the hand, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. The 15-year-old was charged with two counts of attempted murder and two counts of battery through discharge of a firearm, police said Friday night. He was taken into custody and interviewed earlier Friday.
The Chicago Tribune reported police believe the gunman is a member of the Gangster Two-Six gang and was targeting a member of the Latin Kings. The girl was trick-or-treating as a group of males chased a man in the Little Village neighborhood. "This is unacceptable," Sgt. Rocco Alioto said. "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." The shooter had on a mask like the one the character Jason wears in the Friday the 13th movies, Guglielmi said, adding that investigators had found a gun that might be the weapon used in the shooting. The girl was shot in the lower neck and rushed to a hospital in critical condition, according to a Fire Department rep. She was in critical but stable condition Friday, Guglielmi said. The wounded man, who was shot in his left hand, was taken to a hospital in good condition.
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