The shooting happened just after 1PM Sunday.
"It's absolutely heartbreaking,” said one neighbor. “Bullets and kids don't mix."
As children were playing in the 3500 block of Old York Road, gunfire erupted.
"They should not have to deal with this,” Karen West said. “They shouldn’t have to deal with their classmates or their friends being lost."
Investigators think the triggerman was aiming for a group of four young men, who are now persons-of-interest in the case.
"He missed his four intended targets and instead hit a nine-year-old girl who was playing on her steps behind them,” Baltimore Interim Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said. “The four intended targets fled on foot, we don't know who they are, we don't know where they are, but we're considering them people we're coming after."
The 9-year-old was rushed to the hospital where she's being treated for a broken femur.
"This is not okay, this should not be normal,” said Baltimore City Councilman Brandon Scott. “Only the scum of the earth would do this a nine-year-old child."
City leaders spoke out hours after the shooting, pleading with people to come forward with information. Saying the Charm City is stuck in a sick vicious cycle of violence.
"The fact that we're standing here right now and the streets are not overflowing with people who live right here is a part of the problem," said Munir Bahar with the 300 Men March. "We need more people involved, this is not a police problem, this is not a government problem, this is our problem as citizens."
Sunday's crime scene was just one block from where three-year-old McKenzie Elliott was hit by a stray bullet last August.
"Maybe this is a time to get this one right,” Davis said. “If we didn't get that one right let's get this one right."
But people in this neighborhood say many are living in fear, and the killings are tearing the community apart.
"These little kids, you know, they're growing up having to duck and run, that shouldn’t be on anybody's resume besides an Army SEAL."
So far this year 34 children have been shot in the city.
If you know anything about this latest crime, please call Baltimore Police Norther District Detectives at 410-396-2455.
