An 8-year-old girl was killed and three other people were injured in a shooting near a preseason high school football event on Aug. 23 in St. Louis, police said.
The girl, two teenage boys, and a woman were shot near Soldan High School, police said.
Police officers already were in the area when the shooting happened, having started to clear crowds from the school grounds after fights were reported there, Chief Hayden told reporters.
The girl was “with family” when she was shot, Hayden said. He didn’t say who her relatives were, or whether they were among the injured. He also didn’t say what led to the gunfire.
“The little girl wasn’t doing anything wrong,” Hayden said. “She was with family when this occurred. Shots rang out. Not sure what particular fight that was going on when shots rang out.”
The names and information about the conditions of the injured teens and woman weren’t immediately released. Police didn’t immediately know who fired the shots.
‘You Could See the Life Leaving Her’
A former firefighter, Mark Vasquez, told KMOV that he heard the gunshots from a house he was in. He said he went outside and rushed over to the girl to try to help her.He found her unresponsive with a wound to her abdomen, he said.
“You could see the life leaving her,” Vasquez said, holding back tears.