A 3-year-old girl is in extremely critical condition after being shot in the right eye inside a home in East Germantown, police said.
The wounded girl was driven in a private vehicle to Einstein Medical Center around 1:15 p.m. Saturday, police said. A bullet had entered her right eye, and exited her left eye, according to police sources with knowledge of the shooting who who did not want to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly about it. Doctors were airlifting the child to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, police said.
Investigators have recovered a gun inside a home on the 500 block of East Chelten Avenue, and police have taken a man into custody for questioning, said Cpl. Jasmine Reilly, a spokesperson for the department.
The little girl is the second toddler shot inside a Philadelphia home in nine days.
On March 28, a 4-year-old girl in Northwest Philadelphia was hospitalized in stable condition after she accidentally shot herself while playing with a gun she found in a relative’s bedroom. Police interviewed three adults, including the girl’s mother, who were in the home at the time. It is unclear if any arrests were made in that case.
According to police, 29 children under the age of 18 have been shot in Philadelphia in 2024, six of them fatally.
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