A 10-year-old girl is seriously hurt after a bullet fired during “a barrage of gunfire” in Northeast D.C. on Sunday hit her in a car as her family headed home, authorities say. The search for the shooter or shooters is ongoing.
Arianna 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, the Metropolitan Police Department said. More than 50 shots were fired.
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. She was in critical condition as of late Sunday. Information was not released on exactly where in the body she was shot.
The child is “fighting for her life,” Chief of Police Robert Contee said in an update Monday morning.
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“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," he said.
Police believe the family was not the intended target of the shooting.
“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.”
Bullets pierced other cars and several homes on Hayes Street. Resident Connie Lopez and her family ducked for cover when they heard the shots.
“It sounded exactly like it used to sound when we were in war in El Salvador. All the memories came back,” Lopez said.
One bullet whizzed through a window of her home, scraped a wall and ended up in one of the stairs. Lopez said a D.C. officer told her that if the bullet had come from a different angle, it could have flown into her daughter’s bedroom.
“We are scared. We are planning to maybe move out from here,” Lopez said.
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 that could be relevant to the investigation is asked to contact police. A reward of up to $20,000 is offered — half of which is from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The gunfire on Mother's Day followed several shootings in D.C. over the weekend, including one on Saturday morning that left a teen boy in Southeast D.C. with life-threatening injuries.
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.
Stay with NBC Washington for more details on this developing story.
