A young girl was killed outside her home in Illinois while playing and riding her scooter.
8-year-old Sarabi Medina from Portage Park, Chicago, was shot dead in a “completely unprovoked” attack while playing on her scooter outside her apartment block.
According to the reports, the shocking incident took place at around 8.40 pm on Saturday, whereas the shooter approached the young girl before shooting her in the head.
Sarabi was a young and bubbly girl whose mother died due to gun violence back in 2018. She was also a student at Reinberg Elementary School where she was about to kick off the fourth grade.
Witnesses from the scene have since come forward and revealed that the child just got her ice cream from a nearby stand when the suspect approached her and point the gun at her.
The shooter has since been identified as Michael Goodman, a fellow resident at the apartment complex where Sarabi lived. He was charged with first-degree murder and is set to appear in bond court on Monday.
“She was sweet, she would just ride her scooter up and down the sidewalk smiling. An innocent, innocent girl who did not deserve that,” Destiny Hill, one of the girl’s neighbors, said after the tragedy rocked the local community.
A friend of Sarabi’s father also spoke out and revealed that the girl was her father’s world.
He also recalled the horrible moment he and his friend saw the gunman walk up to the 8-year-old girl and shoot her in the head.
“When he raised the gun up, Mike seen him and said, ‘that’s my daughter!’ Mike starts moving towards him, he walks up to her and shoots her right in the head,” he added.
After the shooting, Sarabi’s father charged the crazed suspect and tackled him to the ground. In the brawl, the suspect allegedly got shot in the face.
Speaking out over the senseless crime was another neighbor of the family, Sus Kyser, who said people living in the area are terrified because of the “crazy” killing.
“You killed an innocent child, an innocent baby girl for what reason? Now these parents have to mourn their baby and everything else, and every time they turn around and look, they’ll know it was across the street,” she said.
“Nobody’s going to let their kids come around here and play. People aren’t going to take their kids to this park because they are terrified. We just wanted to pay our respects to her and to her family. But it’s just crazy.”
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