COMPTON, Calif. – A 1-year-old girl lying in her crib was fatally struck in the head by a bullet at a home in Compton, and authorities are searching Wednesday for two suspects, Los Angeles County sheriff's officials said.
The gunman got out of a car and opened fire Tuesday evening at a converted garage where the child and her parents live, said Sheriff's Commander Rod Kusch.
A bullet hit the child in the head. Deputies rushed the girl in their patrol car to a hospital where she was declared dead. Detectives are investigating whether gang rivalries are involved, Kusch said.
"Clearly the baby is an unintended victim," Kusch said.
Authorities are searching for two men who were spotted fleeing the residential neighborhood in a dark sedan.
Rena Burleson, who said she used to babysit the child, raced to the hospital when she heard about the shooting on social media.
Burleson said when she got there the family was gone, so she came to the block where they live.
"It just hurts and bleeds," Burleson, a Long Beach resident, told the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/1PMZNec ).
The coroner's office did not immediately identify the child.
The site of Tuesday's shooting, about a block from Roosevelt Elementary School, is in one of the more violent neighborhoods in Los Angeles County, according to crime data compiled by the Times.
During the last six months, Compton has had 475 violent crimes, including eight homicides, according to the newspaper's database.
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