A mother driving in Vallejo found her car unwittingly in the middle of a gunfight Sunday night, when her four-year-old daughter was hit by a bullet, and is now in serious condition at Children’s Hospital in Oakland.
We noted in our Monday news roundup that a four-year-old child was shot and critically injured in Vallejo on Sunday night. But at the time, details were scarce, and we did not know just how a four-year-old was in a situation where they took a bullet.
But now KTVU has some follow-up reporting, and the context is even more disheartening than we thought. According to that station, the mother was driving through Vallejo with her four-year-old daughter, and inadvertently found her car in the middle of a gunfight. Gunfire was apparently being exchanged between one automobile and a group of people on the street, at 8:30 pm Sunday night near Mark Avenue and Sawyer Street in Vallejo.
The shocked but quick-thinking mother drove the daughter immediately to a hospital from the scene. The injured four-year-old has since been transferred to Children’s Hospital in Oakland and KTVU describes her as “being treated for serious injuries.”
The girl’s family is not identified in the report, though her grandmother told KTVU, “We do thank Jesus that she is in the land of the living.”
Other neighbors were less gracious. “You’ve offended and hurt somebody that couldn’t defend themselves. What kind of coward are you that you pick on people like that?,” Vallejo native Harold Dees said to KTVU. “We don’t respect each other. You have to live in this certain parameter to be able to be respected and protected. And it shouldn’t be that way.”
The gunfire was not limited to that block, and apparently rounds were fired from another block away. Police say that at least four guns were involved, and dozens of shots were fired. Vallejo Police add that they found no fewer than 30 casings in the aftermath.
And yet, this all could have been worse, as another young child was also nearly hit by gunfire. KTVU spoke to that child’s mother about the significant volume of shots fired in the fight.
“It sounded like it was never going to stop,” she told the station. “There’s a bullet that went through my house, through the wall, onto my couch where my 8-year-old son was sitting.”
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Image: Bullet holes in the front safety glass of car. Close up view. (Getty Images)