A shooting initially believed to be a drive-by injured two young girls in East Chicago, Ind., police said.
Arianna Quiroz, 12, and her 11-year-old cousin, Selena Quiroz, were shot at around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday while playing video games in their home on the 3900 block of Fir Street, police said.
"I hurried and pushed the girls on the floor. Then we crawled through here," family friend Arturo Vargas said as he showed off the hallway that leads toward the back of the home. "That's when the girls got up and said, 'It hurts, it hurts.'"
Both girls were wounded multiple times.
"Everyone was screaming. We all got to the floor and crawled that way to the bathroom where nobody else would get hurt," said Vargas.
The shooting was initially reported as a drive-by, but witnesses described hearing a vehicle stop in front of the home before the gunshots went off. The gunman fired through a front picture window of the home.
While hitting the girls may have been a mistake, the shots fired toward the home were not, said police.
"The house was definitely targeted. We can account for every round going at the house into that window," said East Chicago Police Chief Mark J. Becker.
Authorities are interviewing neighbors, and the FBI is assisting the investigation into whether or not the shooting was gang related.
Vargas said he doesn't know who would open fire on his girlfriend's home.
"It's messed up. They got shot over something they have nothing to do with," he said.
The girls are recovering at Chicago-area hospitals.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call police at 219-391-8318 or 219-391-8268. The organization No Guns, No Violence has put up a $1,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction.
