Teenage boy charged in Halloween shooting of seven-year-old girl in bumblebee costume

Investigators believe trick-or-treater was caught up in gang-related attack

The young girl, who was critically wounded in the shooting on Halloween on Thursday, is believed to have been hit in the lower neck with a stray bullet (AP)

A 15-year-old boy has been charged with attempted murder after a seven-year-old girl was shot while she was trick-or-treating in a bumblebee outfit in Chicago.

The young girl, who was critically wounded while trick-or-treating for Halloween in the city’s West Side on Thursday, is believed to have been hit in the lower neck with a stray bullet.

It is the latest in a string of shootings in the city which have seen innocent bystanders ensnared in crossfire.

Investigators believe the youngster was shot in a gang-related attack and the man believed to be the target was a 30-year-old shot in the hand, police spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said.

The shooter was wearing a mask resembling the one worn by the character Jason in the Friday the 13th movies, Mr Guglielmi said, adding investigators had found a gun which may be the weapon used in the shooting.

He said the young girl was in critical but stable condition on Friday.

The 15-year-old was charged with two counts of attempted murder and two counts of battery through discharge of a firearm, police said.

The Chicago Tribune reported police believe the gunman is a member of the Gangster Two-Six gang and was targeting a member of the Latin Kings.

The girl was trick-or-treating as a group of men chased another man down the street in the Little Village neighbourhood.

Sergeant Rocco Alioto said the shooting was “unacceptable”.

He added: “A seven-year-old girl that was trick-or-treating with her family had to get shot because a group of guys want to shoot at another male.”

The girl was rushed to a hospital in critical condition after being shot, according to fire department spokesperson Larry Langford.

The wounded man, who was shot in his left hand, was taken to a hospital in good condition.

“We heard the shots... and I went outside,’’ Lali Lara, 25, who was working at a shop near the scene, told the Chicago Tribune.

“The girl’s father was screaming: ‘My little girl’s been shot!’”

The shooting comes after a jury acquitted a man the day before Halloween who was charged with first-degree murder in the 2014 death of an 11-year-old girl who was shot while inside a house at a sleepover.

It is also just days after Donald Trump’s first visit to Chicago since entering the White House back in January 2017.

In his speech at the Chiefs of Police Annual Conference, the US president claimed Chicago was “embarrassing to us as a nation” and said “Afghanistan is a safe place by comparison”.

Additional reporting by Associated Press