An eight-year-old girl (pictured above), who had recently immigrated to the US, was killed over the weekend in Chicago during an exchange of fire between members of rival gangs, a fact that shocked public opinion in the American metropolis where the problem of violence is gangrene.
Melissa Ortega, 8, was walking with her mother on Saturday afternoon on the street of the third largest urban center in the USA when shots were heard.
Despite trying to find cover, the child was hit in the head by two bullets, according to a report by law enforcement.
Police believe the target of the fire was a 26-year-old man with a serious criminal record, a member of a local gang who has been involved in a war with two other criminal organizations.
He was injured by a bullet in the back and is being treated in hospital. So far, the perpetrator has not been identified.
"There are no words to refer to the death of an eight-year-old girl," Chicago Police Chief David Brown told a news conference Monday, promising that his services would do everything in their power to " to bring the perpetrators of the crime to justice ".
The Democratic mayor of the city, Lori Lightfoot, during a separate press conference, pledged to intensify the efforts of the authorities against the gangs that act "without any respect for human life."
Melissa will be buried in her hometown of Los Sausages, Mexico. She and her mother settled in Chicago in August, hoping to live the "American Dream," according to a donation call posted on the GoFundMe equity fund.
Chicago has the highest number of homicides using firearms in the United States for years. The statistics worsened even more in 2021: 836 murders were committed.
But stray bullets often have casualties across the country. An 11-month-old baby is in critical condition after being injured by a stray in New York last week while a British man who was visiting his American girlfriend was killed in his sleep in Atlanta eight days ago.
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