Whoever opened fire on a family gathering in a St. Paul back yard, leaving a 2-year-old shot in the head and gravely injured, is a coward, a neighbor said Monday.

Dennis Hudson tried to help the girl when his North End neighbor ran to him early Monday. The 23-year-old man was holding his daughter in his arms and shouting, “Somebody just shot my baby,” Hudson said.

The girl’s father also had been grazed by a bullet, though he apparently didn’t realize it right away. Another man at the gathering was shot and suffered a non-life threatening injury.

But the child sustained the most serious injury — and the sight of all that blood coming from a child is something Hudson will never forget.

“I don’t care about what people say about a grown man crying,” Hudson said, his eyes welling with tears Monday morning. “But when you see a child with a bullet wound in their head, that really hurts your soul really bad.”

GUNFIRE BROKE OUT SHORTLY AFTER MIDNIGHT

The shooting happened in the 200 block of West Maryland Avenue, at the Marion Street intersection, about 12:10 a.m. Officers patrolling in the area heard several gunshots and multiple 911 calls reported shots fired, said Steve Linders, a St. Paul police spokesman.

The motive remains under investigation. Police underscored that some witnesses were cooperating with investigators, but said others were not and they had not been able to make arrests.

“Based on the information our investigators did receive, they don’t believe that this is entirely random,” Linders said Monday afternoon. “They believe there is some kind of connection between the shooter or shooters and at least one of the victims.”

About 20 family members were gathered in a back yard for a Father’s Day celebration when the shooting occurred, said a man who identified himself as a cousin but declined to give his name.

People reported that the shooting came from a nearby alley, according to preliminary emergency radio traffic posted by MN Police Clips. The 2-year-old girl was playing outside when she was shot, Hudson said.

Hudson called it a “cowardly move for someone to come over here that time of night, see kids playing out here in this yard” and start shooting.

“It could have been my grandkids because we had just came home,” Hudson said. “To shoot like that, that many times, that’s not a human being, that’s not human. … Whoever did something like that, doesn’t need to be on this earth right here, they doesn’t deserve life because that child is down there fighting for her life.”

The cousin said he is in shock and does not know why the shooting occurred. He described it as: “Wrong place, wrong time.”

The little girl, whom the cousin described as a sweet baby, underwent surgery.

“It’s not looking too good,” the cousin said Monday morning.

Another relative, who started a fundraising website for the girl’s medical bills, posted on Monday that the child is “fighting for her life in the ICU. My niece is a beautiful, cheerful and full of energy little girl.” She asked people to keep her family in their prayers.

Police did not release the girl’s name on Monday.

‘SOMEBODY JUST SHOT MY BABY’

Hudson said he had just gone to bed when he heard his 19-year-old daughter screaming, “Dad, dad, dad!” She told him she heard gunshots outside. Then, someone began pounding on his door.

Hudson saw his neighbor, Shawn Vang, coming around the corner. The man was holding his 2-year-old daughter and begging for help. Vang fell into his arms and he took the child.

Hudson saw the little girl had been shot in the area of her temple.

“It was a horrible thing to see,” he said.

There was little they could do until paramedics arrived, but Hudson used a towel to apply pressure to her wound, while trying to calm the girl’s mother and father.

Police said the other victims were Vang and Lee Lor, 27. Paramedics took them and the little girl to Regions Hospital. Lor, a friend of Vang’s, was shot in the shoulder, according to Hudson.

Initial police dispatches indicated the child was not conscious or breathing at the scene, and wailing could be heard in the background. Hudson thought she was breathing when she was taken away. By Monday afternoon, police said she was in critical condition with life-threatening injuries.

Vang and Lor had been released from the hospital by Monday afternoon, police said.

Police received an anonymous noise complaint about the address roughly an hour before the shooting, Linders said. Officers responded at 11:15 p.m., told people about the complaint and that they should keep it down, he said.

Then, after midnight, the shots began. Beth Brown, who lives in the area, said she heard so many gunshots “it sounded like it was a war.” She heard about five shots at first, another seven and then yelling. Jenny Straw, who also lives nearby, said she heard 15 to 20 gunshots and went to check on her own children.

Hudson said the family who was victimized had been in Wisconsin for the weekend and came back Sunday.

“They’re good people,” Hudson said. “He’s young; he works hard for his family.”

Another neighbor, who saw the girl Sunday, said she is “super cute and she likes hugs.”

Other children live in the home, and Hudson said he and his family took care of an infant and 6-year-old girl after the shooting until other relatives picked them up.

NEIGHBORHOOD CRIME CONCERNS

Police said they need the public’s help to find those responsible for the shootings. They asked that anyone with information to call them at 651-266-5650.

The North End shootings come as reports of shots fired were up 65 percent in St. Paul through mid-June, compared with the same period last year. In the police department’s Central District, which includes the North End, shots-fired reports increased nearly 46 percent in the same period.

Linders said gun violence “is insidious.”

“It rips at the fabric that holds St. Paul together and it doesn’t just affect the people that are struck,” he said Monday. “A bullet goes through the air and it hits a person and a family’s life is devastated, children no longer feel safe in their neighborhoods, entire parts of town feel fear, and our officers are put in incredible danger when they respond to these types of calls. … Our cops are out there, they’re working hard, but they can’t do it alone, so we’re asking people to step forward.”

People in the North End have been worried about crime and have been advocating for a police substation to increase officers’ presence in the area, said Gidget Bailey, owner of Tin Cup’s on Rice Street and Maryland Avenue.

There have been five homicides in the North End since September; charges have been filed in two of the cases. Two of the homicides occurred since the beginning of May: A 36-year-old man was shot in the 300 block of Burgess Street and a 28-year-old man was gunned down in the 800 block of Rice Street last week.

“What breaks my heart is that it took for a child to get shot for maybe higher-up people to say, ‘You know what? Maybe we do have a problem here and maybe we need to focus and concentrate on the North End,’ ” Bailey said Monday.

Bailey said her bar went into lockdown after the shooting, which occurred three blocks away early Monday, because they were worried about suspects being in the area.

“I’m sick to my stomach,” Bailey said. “It could be my grandchildren because they live in the neighborhood. … I could really cry a river of tears right now. I grew up here and this neighborhood is not what it used to be.”

A woman who lives on the block where Monday’s shooting happened said she’s lived there for several months and neighbors who have lived in the area longer told her they’ve seen it change for the better, with five houses on that block alone sold in the last year going from renters to homeowners.

The police department relaunched its Rice Street beat-officer program at the end of April. Officers patrol in the area and, when they don’t have calls to respond to, aim to connect with residents and business owners, according to the police department.