EAST CHICAGO, Ind. (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- An 8-year-old girl has died after being shot in the head last week by stray gunfire while seated on a living room floor doing homework in East Chicago, Indiana.
“We were informed earlier this afternoon that she passed away,” East Chicago Deputy Chief Jose Rivera said Wednesday in an email.
“Mayor [Anthony] Copeland has matched the $5,000 reward offered by the ATF doubling the reward to $10,000 for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual(s) involved,” he wrote.
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The girl was shot after someone outside fired 16 shots from an automatic weapon about 10 p.m. Oct. 22, sending one stray bullet through the siding of the home, Rivera said then.
Police responded to the shooting in the 4500 block of Magoun Avenue and found the child lying on the floor, bleeding from her head. The girl was taken to St. Catherine’s Hospital in East Chicago, where her condition stabilized, before being flown to Comer Children’s Hospital in Chicago.
Police said they don’t believe she was the intended target.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office has not released details on her death.
Police asked anyone with information to call East Chicago police’s anonymous tip line at 219-391-8500.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire & Chicago Sun-Times 2020. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)