Hayward girl shot as she slept in her family's home continues to recover

September 25, 2013

Bay Area News Group; Natalie Neysa Alund; Sept. 25, 2013

By Natalie Neysa Alund
Staff Writer, Bay Area News Group

HAYWARD -- A child shot as she slept in her bed inside her family's Hayward home last week remained hospitalized Tuesday but continued to recover, police said.

"The 10-year-old victim is recovering well and is now able to eat and walk on her own," police Sgt. Mark Ormsby said of the girl shot Sept. 19 after bullets sprayed her family's home in the 27800 block of Tampa Avenue during a drive-by shooting.

Members of the Hayward Police Department and Cal State University East Bay Police Department, along with four student athletes from the school's softball team, visited the girl in the hospital Tuesday to lift her spirits and encourage a speedy recovery after learning she was an avid softball fan, police said.

The girl was shot once in the buttocks after someone fired multiple rounds into the home at 2 a.m., but police said the shooting was not reported until 7:35 a.m.

No one else in the home -- her parents, her two sisters, ages 15 and 23, and an 8-month-old brother -- were injured.

The girl's 42-year-old father and 43-year-old mother told officers that they didn't know a barrage of bullets had hit one of the cars in their driveway and their home. One bullet entered a front bedroom of the home and hit their sleeping 10-year-old daughter.

The parents did not report the shooting until more than five hours after it happened, Stuart said.

The girl, who told her parents she "felt a pain and burning sensation in her lower extremities," had blood on her clothing so her family thought she started her first menstrual cycle because she was bleeding vaginally, Stuart said.

Police don't know a motive and no arrest has been made.

The shooting remained under investigation on Tuesday.

Anyone with information on this case is asked to contact Hayward police at 510-293-7034.