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ST. LOUIS (AP) — Police say an 8-year-old girl has been killed and three others injured in a shooting near a high school in St. Louis, bringing the number of children killed by gunfire in the city to at least a dozen since June.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports the shooting happened about 8 p.m. Friday outside Harold's Chop Suey restaurant in the city's Academy neighborhood.
Police Chief John Hayden said the girl, identified by police as Jurnee Thompson, and her family had attended a football exhibition about a block away at Soldan High School. Hayden says fights broke out at the event, and police tried to clear the area when shots rang out.
Police say the injured included two 16-year-old boys and 64-year-old woman. Hayden says "two or three" of the people who were shot were related.
Hayden said several people were detained for questioning.
St. Louis has seen a rash of children fatally shot this summer. A 7-year-old boy was shot on Aug. 13 while standing near a teenager and two other children on the city's north side.
The shootings involving children have angered city's police chief frustrated city leadership . Police said much of the violence is tied to drug dealing and the children happen to be caught in the way.
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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com
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