A 6-year-old girl was shot and her mother and sister were injured after a shooting Monday evening in Southeast D.C., police say.
D.C. Council Member Vincent Gray said it was the girl had been excited about attending her first day back at school before the terrifying injury.
"Now, she's traumatized," Gray said. "We need to do more."
Gray said D.C. can't accept guns as an inevitable part of life.
The young girl is expected to recover. Her mom and 12-year-old sister were injured by flying glass and debris. Police said their injuries were not life-threatening.
Witnesses said a car circled the block. Then, someone fired several rounds.
The family was inside a Jeep, but it didn't stop the bullets. The younger girl was struck in the leg. The suspects drove off.
"We heard something go 'boom, boom, boom." Sounded like a machine gun but a grenade at the same time," the girl's grandmother, who News4 identified only as Peaches, said.
"They came in and all your could see was a trail of blood," Peaches said. "The six-year-old had a big gash in her leg."
"You could see that it had the bullet in there," she continued. Peaches said they couldn't see an exit wound.
"She was very scared," Peaches said. "Who wouldn't be?"
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"Thank God they're alive," she continued.
The shooting occurred in the 100 block of 56th Street SE about 8 p.m., less than a mile from where 10-year-old Makiyah Wilson was killed last month.
Police are searching for a dark-colored, older-model, four-door Lexus or Acura. The car has a wing on the back and was seen with the license plate in the front window, police say.
On the same block, a man was wounded in a stabbing on Tuesday. Police are investigating whether the stabbing and shooting could be related.
If you have any information, call police.
Two other shootings occurred in D.C. Monday night, but police said they are considered unrelated. Over the weekend, two people were killed, representing the 98th and 99th homicides in D.C. this year.
