A 12-year-old girl has been brutally killed after she was caught in the middle of gunfire in Hartford, Connecticut Thursday, police have confirmed.
Authorities say Se’Cret Pierce was an innocent bystander when the shooting took place just before 9 pm. The suspects were in a passing vehicle and were aiming for three men standing on the street when a bullet struck the victim. The three other men were wounded.
Police say Pierce was shot in the head as she sat in a parked car. She was found unresponsive and rushed to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead the next day.
“She had nothing to do with it,” police Lt. Aaron Boisvert told WTNH. “Very tragic. Very unfortunate. Sickening.”
Investigators say the other three victims survived. One, an 18-year-old suffered life-threatening injuries, while the two others, 16 and 23, sustained non-life-threatening injuries. The latter two were subsequently treated for gunshot wounds.
One day after the shooting, Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said at a press conference that the three who were shot each have wide-ranging criminal histories, “including, I believe, multiple firearm arrests and multiple arrests for the use of a firearm. I believe they know who fired the bullets that killed the 12-year-old girl. I believe one of the bullets intended for them killed the 12-year-old girl.”
The mayor added that it is the duty of anyone with information to come to police and share what they know.
“It is not acceptable not to cooperate with investigators, and it is not acceptable not to share the information you know about who took the life of a 12-year-old girl,” he said. “That’s not fair to her family, that’s not fair to her loved ones, that’s not fair to her memory, that’s not fair to our community.”
Anyone with information is urged to call the Hartford police tip line at (860) 722-TIPS (8477).
