Two girls were shot by flying bullets at an elementary school playground in Chicago on Friday, prompting outrage from the city’s top cop about gun violence.
The girls were outside for an end-of-school celebration featuring hot dogs and water balloon fights when shots rang out around 1:30 p.m. Friday, the Chicago Tribune reports.
A 7-year-old girl was shot in the thigh and a 13-year-old girl was shot in the hand as teachers scrambled to protect students amid the chaos, according to the newspaper.
After a shooting at an elementary school on the South Side of Chicago wounded two girls, police Superintendent E… https://t.co/Asy8VxdSFP
— Thus Spake (@thus_spake) June 17, 2017
Both girls were taken to a children’s hospital in serious condition.
The shooting happened after several suspended students sought to participate in the picnic but were removed. The students then went to a nearby corner when someone in a car began firing at them, the Tribune reports.
The suspended students ran back into the picnic, leading the shooter to aim toward the playground.
Children who were at the playground described a traumatic scene after the shooting. One student, who said a classmate had gotten blood on her shirt, told the newspaper: “People were screaming. People were crying.”
Three “persons of interest” have been arrested in connection with the shooting, according to Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, who expressed dismay about the incident.
“It’s just ridiculous,” Johnson said. “It angers me that these little children cannot grow up and not think that gunfire is the norm … It’s not okay.”
Emerson Hart, the father of the 13-year-old girl, told the Tribune that he was in Michigan City, Indiana, when he was told that his daughter had been hurt.
Hart immediately drove back to Chicago — a 60-mile trip — in 45 minutes.
“It’s a father’s worst nightmare,” Hart told the Tribune.
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