"She walked a little bit down the corridor of the hospital, " Spires said. "She's in a little pain, she's hungry. The doctors don't want her to have anything in her stomach just in case there's fragments there."



Spires said the man who was also shot was walking out of a home toward his car when the shooting began. "They just opened, started shooting. It was a coward, senseless act. It's just crazy, man, it don't make no sense. It's real bad, man.



"My grandbaby doesn't even know what a gun is," he added. "I mean, it's crazy. We celebrated her fourth birthday just this past weekend."



The girl's aunt, Theda Smith, called the shooting "devastating."



"Innocent children are getting shot by guys that want to come in different areas or territories and shoot other guys," Smith said. "It's crazy."



For Bamani Obadele, whose children are friends with Khalise, the shooting left many questions.



"What do you say to this 4-year-old, a child that just turned 4, that's got a bullet hole in her stomach?" he asked. "What do I say to my four children and cousins, who play with this young girl and had to watch her laying in an alley by their house?"



He paused, and shook his head.



Three other young children have been shot and wounded this month:



• A 7-year-old boy was shot in the neck in Cole Park in the Chatham neighborhood on July 3.



• Jaden Donald, 5, was shot in the chest at Cooper Park in the West Pullman neighborhood early on July 4.



• Quianna Tomplins, 6, was shot while riding a scooter in the Roseland neighborhood July 20. She was at a memorial for a man shot to death on the same street five years ago.