Bullet Hits Girl, 9, in Pacoima Home During Gang Shootout
A 9-year-old Pacoima girl sitting at home with her father was shot early Sunday morning when a stray bullet penetrated a wall and struck her, police said.
Rival gangs were engaged in a gun battle outside of a home in the western section of Pacoima about 2:30 a.m. when the bullet flew into the house, according to Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill Division.
The girl, whose name was withheld because of her age, was hit in the upper torso and underwent surgery at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, police said. She was reportedly in stable condition.
No one else was injured in the shooting and no one was arrested, police said.
The incident occurred a block away form Hubert Humphrey Park, a location plagued in recent years by violence and gang activity. Community groups moved to close the 9 1/2-acre park in 1997 after an 18-year-old football player was shot to death.
The park is included in Mayor Richard Riordan’s $8.8-million initiative, announced last month, to add equipment and staff and to eliminate illegal dumping, abandoned cars and broken sidewalks in troubled city parks.
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