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9-Year-Old Hercules Girl Shot After Answering Door

HERCULES (CBS 5 / KCBS / AP / BCN) ― A 9-year-old girl has been shot and critically injured as she answered the door of her family's Hercules home.

Police said someone knocked on the door of the home in the 100 block of Brighton Street about 10:25 p.m. Friday and fired up to 10 shots before fleeing on foot.

"With the information we received, we are confident that this was a targeted event for this residence," Hercules police spokeswoman Doreen Mathews told CBS 5 on Saturday.

The girl suffered gunshot wounds to her neck and back. She was taken to Children's Hospital in Oakland and listed in critical but stable condition on Saturday.

Police said the girl was expected to recover from what they termed non-life-threatening injuries.

The suspect fled on foot after the attack and no arrests had been made as of Saturday evening, Mathews said.

But Matthews added that police were following up on leads obtained from witness statements in an effort to identify the suspect.

"They do have some substantial leads that they're working on, and they're hoping to make an arrest," Matthews said.

It was the latest such attack to occur in the Bay Area.

In September, a 57-year-old man was shot dead in the doorway of his home by two men who rang the doorbell. In August, a 25-year-old man was shot and killed when he answered the door.

Other similar slayings have happened in Concord and Oakland.

(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Associated Press and Bay City News contributed to this report.)

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