Reephdweller
02-25-2003, 07:13 AM
Man Charged with Shooting Girl Over Snowball Fight
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A Philadelphia man angered by a children's snowball fight retaliated with a drive-by shooting that left a 10-year-old girl critically injured with a gunshot wound to the head, police said on Monday.
Joseph Best, 32, fired five times into a crowd of mostly young girls on a sidewalk in West Philadelphia after a Sunday afternoon exchange of snowballs, police alleged. A bullet struck third-grader Ebony Smith, who was described as an innocent bystander.
"This little girl had nothing to do with anything. She wasn't even involved in the earlier fight. That's what makes it even more tragic," Police Capt. Charles Bloom told reporters Monday.
The snowball fight took place between a group of neighborhood youths and a second group from a nearby church. Police said Best, who may have been attending church service, returned to the scene in a car hours later and fired into the crowd.
The shooting may have been intended to avenge a teen-age girl from the church being struck with a snowball, police said.
Best was arrested and charged with attempted murder and weapons violations. Authorities were also seeking a second man, said to be the driver of the vehicle.
Smith remained hospitalized in critical condition at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
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PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A Philadelphia man angered by a children's snowball fight retaliated with a drive-by shooting that left a 10-year-old girl critically injured with a gunshot wound to the head, police said on Monday.
Joseph Best, 32, fired five times into a crowd of mostly young girls on a sidewalk in West Philadelphia after a Sunday afternoon exchange of snowballs, police alleged. A bullet struck third-grader Ebony Smith, who was described as an innocent bystander.
"This little girl had nothing to do with anything. She wasn't even involved in the earlier fight. That's what makes it even more tragic," Police Capt. Charles Bloom told reporters Monday.
The snowball fight took place between a group of neighborhood youths and a second group from a nearby church. Police said Best, who may have been attending church service, returned to the scene in a car hours later and fired into the crowd.
The shooting may have been intended to avenge a teen-age girl from the church being struck with a snowball, police said.
Best was arrested and charged with attempted murder and weapons violations. Authorities were also seeking a second man, said to be the driver of the vehicle.
Smith remained hospitalized in critical condition at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
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