Girl, 4, dies after being shot in the head in North Philadelphia
NORTH PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- Police say a 4-year-old girl has died after being struck by gunfire in North Philadelphia.
The incident happened before 12:30 p.m. Thursday inside a home in the 1800-block of North 20th Street.
"She was hysterical crying. She just kept saying, 'save my baby, save my baby, save my baby,' " said Margie Malavet of North Philadelphia.
Malavet says she had just walked outside a nearby medical clinic in North Philadelphia when she saw a desperate mother in the street, clinging to her 4-year-old girl.
"I said, 'What happened?' She said she got shot. The kids were playing upstairs, and the next thing you know she said she found her baby laying on the floor like that and ran outside," said Malavet.
Action News is told the girl, whose age was initially reported as 5, was rushed to Hahnemann University Hospital after being hit in the eye by a bullet.
She was pronounced dead at 1:01 p.m.
Police say the girl's 3-year-old sister was inside the home as was her 25-year-old mother who was transported from the scene.
Investigators aren't sure if there was anyone else there.
"I see them all the time. Sometimes I sit out here," said neighbor Felicia Roussaw. "I see the kids running up and down the block, playing. The mother sit out there sometimes with them."
"It's a shame. It's a little angel," said Malavet. "And to see her little sister bend over seeing her like that."
Malavet says the doctors and nurses from the clinic ran over to help before the medics arrived.
How this happened remains under investigation, but authorities believed it happened in a bedroom.
Police say they have recovered the weapon. At this time, they don't know who it belonged to, and they don't know if it was legal.
"We have a 4-year-old little girl that's dead here so that's our number 1 priority is finding out how this happened," said Philadelphia Police Lt. John Stanford.
