• A 7-year-old girl out trick-or-treating in a bumblebee costume was critically injured Thursday night by gunfire, the police said.
  • The shooting occurred early Halloween evening as the girl was walking with her family and other trick-or-treaters along a street in the Little Village neighborhood. She was not believed to be the target.
  • The police said a group of men were chasing another man along the street when someone in the group fired at the intended victim.
  • The girl, who was shot in the upper chest area, was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition.
  • A 31-year-old man was shot in the left hand and taken to a nearby hospital in good condition.
  • Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.

A 7-year-old girl out trick-or-treating in a bumblebee costume was critically injured Thursday night by stray gunfire, the police said.

The girl, who was shot in the upper chest area, was taken to Stroger Hospital in life-threatening condition, according to a Chicago Fire Department spokesman, Larry Langford. A 31-year-old man was shot in the left hand and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in stable condition, The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune reported.

The shooting occurred early Halloween evening as the girl was walking with her family and other trick-or-treaters along a street in the Little Village neighborhood.

In a tweet, the Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the girl was believed to be an unintended victim.

Lali Lara, who works in a nearby cellphone store, told the Tribune she heard four shots and walked outside. "The girl's father was screaming, 'My little girl's been shot,'" she said.

The police said a group of at least three men were chasing the 31-year-old man along the street when someone in the group fired at the intended victim. Authorities told The Times that the man who was shot was not with the girl.

Guglielmi tweeted on Friday following the shooting that a juvenile was formally classified as a primary suspect in the shooting, with pending criminal charges.

"Just a 7-year-old child out here, with her family, trick-or-treating, just like anybody else," Sgt. Rocco Alioto of the Chicago Police Department said during a news conference. "It shouldn't happen anywhere. It shouldn't happen in this city."

"This is unacceptable," he continued. "A 7-year-old girl that was trick-or-treating with her family had to get shot because a group of guys want to shoot at another male."

The police said there was a surveillance camera near the crime scene from which video could be obtained.

Langford told The Times he had never treated a child for gunshot wounds on Halloween in all of his 20 years on the job.

"It gets to the first responders, because they have kids, too," he told The Times. "It's a tragic situation, but it's not a common situation in Chicago."