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An 11-year-old girl was shot while standing in line outside this Boston Road shoe store to buy a pair of the latest Air Jordan sneakers, according to Springfield police.

(The Republican I Mike Beswick)



SPRINGFIELD — Mayor Domenic J. Sarno said city police are actively hunting for a man who shot an 11-year-old girl in the leg as she waited for a store selling new Nike Air Jordan sneakers to open Saturday morning.

"Shame on them! Shame on them! Over a ... pair of sneakers!" an angry Sarno said Saturday evening.

The mayor said an "orderly line" had formed outside a local shoe store – Expressions at the Walmart plaza on Boston Road – before the shop had opened for business Saturday morning. But a pair of individuals with possible gang ties "tried to cut the line," sparking a violent episode in which the girl, an innocent bystander, was shot and wounded, he said.

"They tried to jump the line," said Sarno, who received a police briefing on the incident. "It just boggles my mind, the uncivilized nature of these unsavory individuals who could have taken the life of an 11-year-old girl." The mayor said he'll be reaching out to the girl and her family, who right now need their privacy and time to deal with the "traumatic situation."

City and state police are searching for one or more suspects, one of whom left behind a camouflage jacket. An extensive ground-and-air search effort, including K-9 units and a state police helicopter, turned up nothing Saturday, but investigators continue to probe the shooting – the second involving a local child injured by gunfire in as many weeks.

"It looks like she's going to be OK," Springfield Police Detective Joe Brodeur said of the girl, whose name was not publicly released. She was shot in the leg and rushed to Baystate Medical Center for treatment.

The incident was reported just after 8:36 a.m. Saturday, Lt. James Rosso said, adding that no arrests had been made as of early Saturday evening.

According to Brodeur, police are looking for "one or more" males who were involved in the altercation, which ended with gunfire.

On March 6, a 5-year-old boy was shot in the leg in Holyoke after a man opened fire on the boy's father. An arrest has been made in that case.

Authorities said the 11-year-old girl was standing in a line of people waiting to buy new Air Jordan sneakers at Expressions, 1067 Boston Road, a shoe store located at the Walmart plaza. She was outside MadRag, a clothing shop two stores away from Expressions, when two males in their late teens or early twenties got into verbal dispute that quickly turned physical.

One male pulled out a handgun and reportedly pistol-whipped the other before opening fire on him. It's unknown if the man who was shot at was struck, but the girl was hit in the leg, police said. "We believe she was an innocent victim," detective Sgt. Kenneth J. Murray said.

Witnesses described the shooter as a black male wearing a camouflage jacket. Murray said police found the jacket nearby and used it to attempt to track the suspect with K-9 units. State police conducted an aerial search with a helicopter, but authorities were unable to locate the gunman. "We were unsuccessful ... he had either been picked up by a car or previously passed through that area," Murray said.

Saturday marked the national release of the Air Jordan 13 Retro "He Got Game" model, which retails for about $170, as well as the Air Jordan 13 GS, a grey-and-pink sneaker for girls that sells for around $115. Air Jordan debuts typically attract crowds of sneaker enthusiasts, some of whom arrive early to get in line before stores open. Some people waited outside the Springfield shoe store all night, according to Murray.

A manager at MadRag, who declined to give her name, said police contacted her around 7:30 a.m. to let her know that one of the store's large front windows had been shattered by gunfire. By Saturday afternoon, two large pieces of plywood covered the hole where the window had been, but the store was open for business, according to the manager.

Two women working behind the counter at Expressions declined to give their names to a reporter. "They're trying to make it sound like it was related to the release (of the new Air Jordans), but it had nothing to do with that," said one of the employees, who was counting a large wad of cash. Two men had a previous beef, she said, and that disagreement coincided with the release of the new Jordans.

Disturbances have plagued past sneaker debuts by the Nike brand named after Michael Jordan, one of the NBA's all-time greatest players. In December, police used pepper spray on a mob outside a mall in Huntsville, Ala. Fights had broken out as about 100 people waited for a previous version of the iconic shoes. In 2011, police across the country struggled to maintain crowd control and quell fights outside national retail outlets as hordes of people lined up for Nike's retro Air Jordans.

Gunfire is rare in the city's Boston Road neighborhood, Springfield's main retail corridor. Sarno said the incident will not be tolerated. "The police are hunting these individuals," he said, referring to them as "disrespectful animals" who don't respect themselves or "human life" in general.

"Thank God this young lady is OK," he said of the injured girl.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the Springfield Police Detective Bureau at (413) 787-6355. Anonymous text-message tips can be sent to CRIMES (or 274637), with the body of the message beginning with the word "SOLVE."