UPDATE 8/8/11 at 3:30 p.m.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that police are questioning a "person of interest" in the murder of 6-year-old Arianna Gibson. The 17-year-old male victim allegedly was the intended target, and reportedly picked the person of interest out of a lineup. Other suspects who were with the alleged shooter were not yet in custody.
A 6-year-old girl was killed early Sunday when someone allegedly approached a home in the South Side's Englewood neighborhood and fired several shots through a window.
The incident happened in the 7400 block of South Sangamon Street about 6 a.m., according to NBC Chicago. The girl, Arianna Gibson, had been sleeping in the living toom of her grandmother's house along with other children and teens.
Linda Chatman, a family friend and resident of the home, told the Chicago Tribune she was returning from the bathroom when she heard shots, and tried ushering the children into a bedroom. That is when she realized Arianna had been shot, along with a 17-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy. The child was shot in her chest and leg, and was pronounced dead about an hour after the shooting at University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital.
The teens were both hospitalized and were expected to recover.
Arianna's grandmother told the Chicago Sun-Times the girl had begged her to stay for the night. She wanted to play with friends at a block party on Saturday.
“She begged me to come over,” her crying grandmother told the Tribune. “She wanted to see me.”
One of the youths in the home told NBC that someone peered through the window before firing shots inside. (Scroll down for video). She said she called out to ask who was there, and there was no response.
Family members told the Tribune the 17-year-old male was not related to them, and believe he was the target.
“It’s just ridiculous, it’s stupid, you know, everybody killing these kids, you know, for no apparent reason," Chatman told CBS. "You know, if they’re looking for someone, you know, get that person. Don’t come kill a child who’s innocent, don’t know nothing, what’s going on. It’s just ridiculous.”
No arrests had been made as of early Monday, when Arianna would have started school.
WATCH Chatman describe what happened here:
View more videos at: http://nbcchicago.com.
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