A 7-year-old girl in a bumblebee costume was trick or treating in Chicago on Thursday for Halloween and was critically wounded when she was struck by a stray bullet, police said.
The girl was out with her family in the Little Village neighborhood when at least one person in a group fired shots, Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said by phone.
According to multiple reports, the girl was wearing a bumblebee costume.
The group of young men were chasing another man along the street, police said.
The girl was not targeted on purpose, Guglielmi said, and a 31-year-old man who was shot in the hand may have been the intended victim.
No one was immediately arrested in connection with the shooting, but a manhunt was under way.
“This is unacceptable,” Sgt. Rocco Alioto told ABC News. “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.”
Police have received leads on a vehicle the group of suspects may have used and tactical teams were looking for it, Guglielmi said. Police also were reviewing footage from surveillance cameras along the street.
“Helpful community info is already coming in but we need more,” Guglielmi said on Twitter.
Gun rights advocates often point to Chicago when arguing the inefficacy of gun control.
Residents are permitted to own firearms but only with many restrictions.
Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city, has grappled with a high homicide rate over the last few years, which President Donald Trump has cited as troublesome.
Chicago’s Democratic leaders have accused the Republican president of using the city’s crime rate to malign it.
Chicago had 561 homicides in 2018 and the Chicago Tribune has reported that, through Oct. 26, it had 436 homicides this year.
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(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Pluralist contributed to this report.)
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