Girl Hit in Drive-By Shooting; She Is 2nd Child Shot in 2 Days

A 9-year-old girl was shot and wounded Tuesday as she played with friends along a street busy with rush-hour traffic, the second child to be gunned down in the area in two days, police said.

Carla Maria Lopez, whose family immigrated from El Salvador, was playing with other neighborhood children in the 400 block of South Rampart Boulevard when she was shot about 6 p.m., said her uncle, Jorge Lopez, who lives across the street.

“She’s such a nice little girl,” Lopez said. “Who would want to shoot her?”

He said the family had no gang connections.

Police said a shot apparently was fired from a passing car.

“It’s a real tragedy--a little kid standing on the street like that,” said Los Angeles Police Sgt. Gerry Sola. “I have no idea what the motive could have been.”

Lopez said he did not hear the shot, but a neighbor, Carmen Ayala, 28, said she noticed a car traveling northbound on Rampart. She said she heard a shot, and the car sped off.

After Carla was shot, her father carried her across the street to her uncle’s home. She was taken to Childrens Hospital where officials said she was in good condition with a gunshot wound in lower back.

Police said witnesses were unable to describe the car or any suspects because traffic was heavy.

About a mile away on Monday, a 12-year-old boy walking home from school was shot in the chest--the innocent victim in the cross-fire of rival gangs on a street crowded with dozens of pedestrians, police said.

Initially in critical condition after undergoing surgery at Childrens Hospital, Luis Santos has shown improvement, hospital officials said Tuesday, adding that he was listed in serious condition.

“He is supposedly an A student and definitely not a gang member,” said Detective Terry Wessel.

No one has been arrested, but police said they have identified several suspects in the incident west of Pico Boulevard’s intersection with Hoover Street, about a mile west of the Los Angeles Convention Center.