A 10-year-old girl has died after a bullet flew through her family’s car in Northeast D.C. on Mother’s Day and hit her, authorities say. Police are still searching for the shooter or shooters who fired a hail of more than 50 shots.
Arianna Davis died at a hospital on Wednesday afternoon after she was shot on Sunday, the Metropolitan Police Department said.
Davis' family had celebrated Mother’s Day and was in the 3700 block of Hayes Street NE, west of DC-295, when they heard gunshots, police said.
The family realized the child had been shot in the upper body, and they rushed to a firehouse. She was then rushed to a hospital.
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Police believe the family was not the intended target of the shooting and that they were innocent victims.
“It is unacceptable to me that a 10-year-old little girl, riding home with her mom, dad and two siblings last night, got caught in the middle of a barrage of gunfire on Mother’s Day," Chief of Police Robert Contee said earlier this week.
“Looking at the amount of rounds on the scene and the direction of travel, we believe at this time that the 10-year-old was accidentally hit in a barrage of gunfire,” Assistant Chief Andre Wright said, calling the shooting a “heinous act.”
The total reward for information that leads to an arrest in Davis' killing has increased to $45,000. Nearly half of that amount is provided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and FBI's Washington Field Office.
Police said they believe the shooter or shooters took off in a dark-colored SUV. No additional information on a suspect was released. Anyone with information about the case is asked to call police at 202-727-9099. Anonymous information may be texted to the department at 50411.
News of Davis' death comes hours after a student was gunned down at Roosevelt High School in D.C. Their deaths mark the 6th and 7th juvenile homicides of the year in the District.
As of May 11, 43 juveniles had been shot in D.C. That’s nearly double the number of young people who were shot last year, and three times as many as at the same point in 2021.
