#8-year-old girl killed in Chicago during violent Labor Day weekend

An 8-year-old girl was killed and two other people were seriously hurt during a Labor Day shooting on Chicago’s South Side, police said.

Young Dajore Wilson was struck by gunfire as she sat in a vehicle at about 6 p.m. Monday in the city’s Canaryville section. Two other people, including a 30-year-old woman and the girl’s 31-year-old father, were also shot, the Chicago Tribune reported, citing sources who said the dad was likely the intended target.

Dajore’s 30-year-old mother was also hurt during the shooting, possibly from broken glass as their car crashed into a tree.

Chicago Police Chief of Operations Brian McDermott told reporters late Monday he was “saddened and angered” that another child lost their life amid gun violence in the city, where at least 175 children age 16 or younger had been shot in 2020, leading to 21 deaths.

In all, more than 2,850 people have been shot throughout Chicago in 2020, including at least 464 who died from the injuries.

The girl had been in a Subaru SUV when it stopped at a red light with another vehicle, a black Dodge Charger, behind it before someone in the Charger opened fire when the light turned green, McDermott told reporters.

Investigators released images early Tuesday of the black, four-door sedan with tinted windows in hopes of identifying the shooter or shooters who were seen in the vehicle “both prior and immediately after the homicide,” police said in a community alert.

No motive has been identified, but gang activity has been noted in the area for an “extended period of time,” Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said while asking for the public’s help to solve the slaying.

Dajore, meanwhile, was about to start third grade on Tuesday at a Chicago public school close to her home, a source told the Tribune.

She was pronounced dead at Comer Children’s Hospital, while the unidentified man and woman were listed in serious condition with gunshot wounds to the back, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

The girl is the sixth child age 10 or younger to be killed in Chicago since late June, according to data cited by the newspaper.

At least 51 people were shot, including nine fatally, across Chicago during the Labor Day weekend, the Tribune reports, compared to 44 shooting victims and nine fatalities during the holiday weekend a year ago.

With Post wires