A young girl from Mexico was killed after being struck in the head by a stray bullet from a nearby shooting.
Melissa Ortega, 8, a third-grade student at Emiliano Zapata Academy in Little Village, was out walking with her mother in the Little Village neighborhood in southwest Chicago when the incident occurred at around 2:45 pm on Saturday.
Melissa and her mother were walking east on 26th Street near Pulaski Road when a gunman emerged from a nearby alley and opened fire, unleashing a hail of bullets that fatally struck the 8-year-old girl twice in the head and wounded a gang member who was the intended target.
After reviewing the surveillance video, investigators determined that a male dressed in all black had stepped out of an alley near 26th Street and Komensky Avenue before firing at a 26-year-old man who was identified in the report as a member of the Gangster Two Six street gang.
According to the report, as the man started running east on 26th Street, the shooter continued to unload. The little girl was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead.
The target, who was also hit in the hail of gunfire has an extensive criminal record. He was shot in the back and is currently hospitalized in critical condition. Authorities did not have an update on his condition Sunday.
A police source said the motivation of the shooting is still unclear but noted the victim’s gang has been feuding with both the Latin Saints and Latin Kings.
Oscar Guevara, a witness from the scene, told CBS Chicago that he heard numerous shots before coming to the girl’s aid. Guevara said: “I heard the mother screaming for help. I had (a) cover, and we put it over her to keep her warm. But there was really nothing we could do.”
“She tried to get up at one point, and that was the hardest part to see. She tried to get up and she like looked around and she laid back down,” he added.
Angel Ocampo, another witness to the shooting, spoke to ABC 7 Chicago about the incident. Ocampo was at a nearby funeral home when the shooting broke out.
Ocampo said: “I just froze and just sat down. I didn’t know what happened. I just sat there. It really isn’t safe. There’s a lot of crime here supposedly and there’s a lot of shootings. This is like gang territory.”
The attacker got away and the police have no one in custody, but Supt. David Brown tweeted that the Chicago Police Department will not rest until the perpetrators are brought to justice.
According to a police report obtained by the Sun-Times, investigators recovered 13 9mm shell casings from the scene. Now in a growing memorial, flowers candles, and balloons are left at the corner of 26th and Pulaski where Melissa was shot.
The shooting happened amid a spike in homicides in Chicago. Last year was the city’s deadliest in a quarter-century, with roughly 800 homicides.
According to an online fundraiser for the family, Melissa and her mother recently moved to Chicago from Mexico last August to “build their American Dream.” GoFundMe has organized an online effort to pay for funeral services, which are expected to be held in Mexico, and has already raised nearly $30,000 out of a $20,000 goal.
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