6-Year-Old Girl Shot While Playing With Friends In West Philadelphia, Police Say
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A 6-year-old girl was shot while playing outside with friends Monday afternoon. It happened on the 3800 block of Wyalusing Avenue in the Mantua section of West Philadelphia.
The little girl ran to her parents to tell them she had been shot.
The girl is OK tonight after being shot once in the leg. Her story though is highlighting the scary reality that children so young know gun violence all too well.
"There was a group of young males that began running towards the kids and shots were fired," Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said.
Police are investigating how a 6-year-old was shot while playing outside with friends Monday afternoon as her parents were sitting inside a car nearby.
"Some of the bullets hit the windshield of the vehicle," Outlaw said.
No one else was hit and it's still not clear who fired the shots or why.
"Once everything was said and done, the 6-year-old told her parents that she had been shot. How does a 6-year-old know what getting shot is like?" Outlaw said.
"Every time I hear a child got shot I just remember myself," Oronde McClain said.
McClain knows the impact of gun violence.
"I got shot in the middle of the back of my head," said.
McClain was just 10 years old when he was shot outside a corner store in 2000. He was there with his mother. McClain spent seven weeks in a coma fighting to stay alive.
"I couldn't walk, I couldn't talk. I was in a wheelchair for two years," McClain said.
Twenty-one years later, this father of four still has the physical and emotional scars.
"I still have bad dreams, waking up thinking somebody is shooting me. I tried to commit suicide 27 times," McClain said.
His plea tonight, speak up, all of us, to break the cycle of young people killing young people.
"There was 36 people outside when I got shot, nobody said anything. Once you shoot a gun, your life is over. I don't think people realize that," McClain said.
So far, no arrests have been made in the shooting of that 6-year-old. Anyone with any information is asked to call police.
CBS3's Alicia Roberts reports.
"For a list of gun violence resources in Philadelphia, click here.
