Aug 25, 2008 5:29 pm US/Central
Girl, 8, Shot While Playing On West Side Porch
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Eight-year-old Nicole Polk was shot while playing on her relatives' front porch in broad daylight in West Garfield Park Aug. 24, 2008.
CBS
A West Side neighborhood is searching for answers after an 8-year-old girl was shot Sunday morning at a family member's home.
CBS 2's Kristyn Hartman reports no one is in custody Monday evening for shooting Nicole Polk in broad daylight on her relatives' front porch in the 4300 block of West Gladys Avenue.
Adding to the mystery, her family says, is no one heard any gunshots prior to her injury, raising questions as to where the shots were fired.
"We're trying to figure out what happened," said the girl's relative Laquita Jones.
"She said she thought it was a firecracker," said another relative, Ruby Jones. "When she came in, that's when they called the ambulance and they said it was a gunshot."
Polk went into surgery so doctors could remove the bullet from her abdomen. She is stable and improving at Stroger Hospital.
Her story is the talk of the West Garfield Park neighborhood where it happened.
"It's real sad that a little girl got shot, you know," said neighbor Clarence Crawford. "It just makes you wonder, you know, what the police can do about it with all this crime going on in the neighborhood."
Police are making their presence known by putting more officers on the streets. Two shootings earlier in August and Sunday's shooting make the area an increased beat target.
"What we do is we go to the different hotspots in the districts," said Sgt. Peggy Schulte of the Chicago Police Department.
The program that puts officers from other areas on the street when they're needed it called "Back to the Beat," an idea out of the superintendent's office.
Young men they stopped on the street said they hope police find whoever shot Polk.
"Whenever a child gets shot, they need to get to the bottom of it," said area resident Antonio Phillips. "I'm happy that they're out here and I'm happy they're trying to get to the bottom of it."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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