Staff Photo by Dan HenryChattanooga Police Officer Mark Pollard moves the crime scene back as emergency personnel respond to the shooting on Thursday.The 4-year-old girls who were injured in a drive-by shooting Thursday afternoon have been released from the hospital, Chattanooga police said Friday, but whoever pulled the trigger is still on the loose.
The two girls were playing outside a home in the 3800 block of Youngstown Road around 1 p.m. Thursday when a vehicle rolled up and someone opened fire - both girls were hurt, but neither was seriously injured.
On Friday, police said they were pursuing multiple "credible leads" in the case but did not have any suspects.
Fast fact
In 2014, 811 locals under the age of 18 were victims of some sort of crime — from burglary to murder to sexual assault — according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, up from 746 in 2013.
The 4-year-olds are among hundreds of underage victims of crime in Chattanooga each year. In 2014, 811 locals under age 18 were the victim of some sort of crime, from burglary to murder to sexual assault, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
That's up slightly from 2013, when Chattanooga police reported 746 juvenile victims in the city.
The most common crime against juveniles in Chattanooga last year was simple assault - about 450 reported cases - followed by aggravated assault, according to TBI. Black children were about three times more likely to suffer an assault than white children, according to TBI.
Three children - ages 1, 13 and 3 - were victims of homicide in Chattanooga during 2013. So far this year, one juvenile, 16-year-old Kentrell Provens, has been killed. Provens was shot while walking on Germantown Road on April 12. No one has been arrested in his death.
Two other children have been wounded by gunfire this year: a 17-year-old boy was shot on May 20 and a 1-year-old girl, Zoey Duncan, was shot in January.
Unlike the two girls who escaped with only minor injuries on Thursday, Zoey was struck in the back and paralyzed from the waist down when a suspect opened fire in an apartment where Zoey was with her mother. The shooter killed 20-year-old Talitha Bowman. After a brief manhunt, police arrested 17-year-old Cortez Sims and charged him with the attack.
Regardless of how serious the physical injuries are, any crime can be a major hurdle for a child, said Verna Wyatt, executive director of Tennessee Voices for Victims.
"For victims of crime, when they suffer a victimization, it never really goes away," she said. "And for children, how do you wrap your brain around that? Where are you supposed to feel safe - at home, school, at church? And when you're violated in any of those places, that is another level of insecurity laid on top."
On Friday, Police Chief Fred Fletcher pointed to Sims' arrest as proof of the department's ability to track down suspects and asked for the public's help to identify Thursday's shooter.
Contact staff reporter Shelly Bradbury at 423-757-6525 or sbradbury@timesfreepress.com with tips or story ideas.