Police probe shootings of girl, adults

MUNCIE — It was a bloody Friday on the city's near-south side.

In the space of less than four hours, three people were shot, the first a 3-year-old girl who was the apparent victim of an accidental shooting about 5:30 p.m. in the Millennium Place public housing complex.

The young shooting victim was listed in critical but stable condition, and flown to an Indianapolis hospital.

A boy in his early teens was arrested on a preliminary charge of criminal recklessness, Police Chief Steve Stewart said, and was being held in the Delaware County Juvenile Center.

And shortly before 9 p.m., gunfire erupted again, this time near the intersection of Ebright and First streets.

Police found two victims — a woman shot in the knee and a man shot in the abdomen — lying in Ebright Street just north of the intersection. Both were taken to IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital. The woman was later flown to Indianapolis.

Stewart said investigators were getting "no cooperation" from witnesses. No suspects were in custody.

"We're out pounding the pavement trying to find (those responsible)," he said.

The chief urged anyone with information on the Ebright shootings to call the Muncie Police Department's investigations division at (765) 747-4867.

Officers found shell casings, appearing to indicate more than one weapon was involved, behind a home in the 1000 block of East First Street.

Friday night's shootings took place in a neighborhood where police have responded to reports of gunfire a handful of times in recent months.

Authorities learned of the 3-year-old girl's shooting at about 5:30 p.m., when that victim was brought to the downtown Muncie fire station, at Jackson and Madison streets, apparently by her father.

He was believed to have carried his daughter there from the shooting scene, in the 700 block of South Elm Street in the Millennium Place housing complex.

The child was taken by ambulance to IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital, where she was treated before being flown to Indianapolis.

Authorities were told the gunshot, apparently from a .22-caliber handgun, was accidentally fired by a 13-year-old boy, who purportedly had found the weapon and didn't know it was real.

The little girl's shooting came about 14 hours after city police, responding to a report of shots fired near the downtown McDonald's, found a 12-year-old boy carrying a .25-caliber handgun.

Contact news reporter Douglas Walker at (765) 213-5851. You can also follow him on Twitter @DouglasWalkerSP.