Girl, 13, Critically Wounded in Drive-By Shooting

A 13-year-old girl leaving a bingo game with her 6-year-old niece Friday night was shot in the face and critically wounded by a bullet fired from a car packed with apparent gang members only a block from an Eastside Los Angeles police station.

The girl, whose name was not immediately released, had just walked out of a community hall on Chicago Street--a block from the Hollenbeck Division station--when she was shot, police said. “They were innocent bystanders. They were walking to a car when these idiots going by on 1st Street yelled out a gang name and started shooting,” Officer Fred Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said about five shots were fired, and one struck the girl. The younger girl ran back into the hall pleading for help. About 180 people were inside participating in a community service organization bingo game.

A short time later, police found an abandoned car on nearby Cummings Street that matched the description of the suspects’ car. Investigators searched the vehicle for evidence.

The victim was taken to County-USC Medical Center.

The shooting in Boyle Heights followed a bloody Thursday night in which four people were killed in apparent gang-related shootings throughout the county, authorities said. It also capped a year in which gang violence in Los Angeles County reached new heights, officials said.