After Back of the Yards mass shooting, CPD Supt. Snelling wonders, 'Where's the outrage?'

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The murder of a nine year old girl at a family party is prompting Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling to ask "Where's the (public) outrage?"

As Snelling's CPD detectives work to identify the shooter or shooters, the I-Team has learned that dozens and dozens of shots were fired from an automatic weapon.

"The number, the number of shell casings that were found at that location for multiple weapons. Right now I believe the number is 76," Snelling said.

He said the spray of gunfire came from an automatic weapon. The guns most popular with street gang shooters these days are semi-auto pistols that have been illegally converted to machine-gun style weapons capable of rapid fire rounds that can unload dozens of shots in just seconds.

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"I would really like to know where the outrage is for that. I really like to know where the outrage is for people in this city who had been victimized who had been traumatized who are going to continue to go through that trauma," he said.

An impassioned career police officer, Snelling looks at what happened and can hardly believe the lack of citywide furor.

Eleven members of one family were shot. Nine-year-old daughter Ariana Molina was killed; other children in the family were wounded.

"And I just can't imagine the parents who have lost a child or it has a child has been shot and been in surgery. That trauma is not only going to affect the parents long term, but the children will be affected for the rest of their lives by these incidents. And then the senseless loss of life is just, it's just it's unimaginable. I can't even imagine what those parents are going through," Snelling said.

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As the city's top lawman, and simply as a man who's a father, Snelling struggles with this repeated, senseless gun violence.

"We can never bring back a child. We can never take away that pain or that trauma. But if we can do the best that we can do to bring some justice to the family. That's what we're going to do," he said.

Although CPD detectives believe the mass attack was committed by gang members in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, based on the automatic firepower and drive-by ambush, it hasn't been determined who might have been the actual target.

Sometimes these are cases of wrong addresses, mistaken identity or just incapable shooters. Superintendent Snelling explained the motive is still part of the police investigation.