7-Year-Old Chicago Girl Shot While Trick-or-Treating Is Identified as Family Speaks Out
The family of the 7-year-old Chicago girl who was shot while trick-or-treating with her father hope the 15-year-old suspect charged with attempted murder stays behind bars.
“…These people should not be loose on the streets,” Gisele Zamago’s aunt, Sanjuana Zamago, told NBC5. “So many kids were excited to ask for candy. It’s not fair, but thank God, people have prayed for my girl. She’s good now, and we hope that nothing like this happens again.”
On Halloween, Gisele was trick-or-treating with her father on a busy street in West Chicago dressed as Minnie Mouse.
Shortly before 5:30 p.m., while it was still light out, a 15-year-old boy fired multiple shots into the street at a rival gang member who was walking among the children.
RELATED: 7-Year-Old Chicago Girl in Critical Condition After Being Shot While Trick-or-Treating
Gisele was struck in the neck and rushed into a cell phone store nearby, where she waited for first responders to arrive.
“We heard the shots…and I went outside,’’ Lali Lara, who works in the cell phone store told the Chicago Tribune. “The girl’s father was screaming, ‘My little girl’s been shot!’”
The boy was charged early Saturday as a juvenile with first-degree attempted murder and two counts of aggravated battery.
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After the shooting, the suspect allegedly dropped the gun and urinated on his hands to cover the smell, NBC5 reports.
Police say multiple individuals were involved in the shooting. Only one has been arrested as at this time.
The victim’s family has set up a Go Fund Me to help cover the little girl’s hospital expenses.
RELATED: Chicago Boy, 15, Charged With Attempted Murder of 7-Year-Old Trick-or-Treater on Halloween
“Those involved don’t deserve to be in our city,” Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said during a news conference Friday morning. “So I’m disgusted, but committed to doing everything we can to find the cowards that would engage in a gun battle in the early evening hours while children were trick-or-treating.”
While the suspect remains behind bars awaiting his next court appearance on Nov. 4, Gisele’s family says they are taking everything day by day.
“We’re happy now, because we got through a nightmare, that I don’t know how…,” Sanjuana Zamago told NBC5.
Gisele was admitted to the hospital in critical but stable condition Thursday. She is expected to remain hospitalized for up to two more weeks and could endure additional surgeries.
In a Go Fund Me update, a relative wrote that the child was “awake watching ‘Finding Dory’, she did not say much but could give small replies when asked by nurses about how she felt” and that the little girl was “looking forward to be able to consume some of her favorite foods.”
The identity of the shooter has not been released because he is a juvenile.
