12-year-old girl fatally shot in park where youth football game was being played

BALTIMORE — A 12-year-old girl was killed when she was caught in the crossfire of gunshots between two men who apparently were arguing over a parking space in a Baltimore park where a youth football game was being played, police said.

Officers responded to Leon Day Park at 6:15 p.m. Saturday, where the girl and a woman were found with gunshot wounds. Two men also walked into area hospitals seeking treatment, Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said at a news conference.

The girl was pronounced dead at a hospital. The three adults suffered injuries that weren’t life-threatening, Worley said.

Two men involved in an argument believed to be over a parking spot began shooting at each other, and the girl and the woman were struck by bullets, Worley said. He said police were seeking “at least” two suspects.

Worley said the girl wasn’t a direct target of the shooting.

“What we know is there was some type of argument between two cowards,” Worley said. “They both opened fire on each other. In the crossfire, a 12-year-old little girl, who was probably down there watching football, was shot and killed.”

Police were still processing the scene in the expansive park, and Worley said it wasn’t immediately known how many shots were fired. He urged anyone who witnessed the shooting to contact police.

“Two grown men got into an argument, and now a 12-year-old is gone,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said at the news conference. “We never should have to say something like that. What happened out here today is one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen in my life.”