4-year old girl shot in crossfire in Louisville

Halima Bakar, age 4

4-year old Halima Bakar was playing in a courtyard in front of her apartment when two men shot at each other from either side of the courtyard.  Halima was caught in the middle.  Two stray bullets went through her left arm, somehow missing the bones.

Halima's parent had immigrated from war-torn Somalia in 2004 to escape the violence there.  They now intend to keep their family indoors as much as possible.

Statistics show that you are more likely to be shot and killed in the United States than to be killed by any means in Somalia.

From an article and video:

"We thought it was fireworks the first time we heard it. Then we noticed people running around and I was like, 'OK, somebody's shooting each other,'" said [aunt] Mumina Hussein. "I was just screaming and all that. I was like, 'What is going on?'" 

Mumina Hussein said two men were shooting at each other across the courtyard. 

She told her niece to bend over to make herself small, but she still wound up an innocent victim.
Loved ones said Halima herself hasn't said much about what happened. 

"She's just 4 years old. She cannot tell what was going on around. She was just playing on around, and accidentally the bullet went in her arm. That's all she knows right now," said Abdikadir Hussein. 

"The family is very happy because the child is alive, but the family is still worried because the person who shot her is still outside," said Muktar Abdulahi, president of the Somali Bantu community. 

Halima's family members left their native Somalia in 2004 to escape civil war there. 

They moved to Louisville four years ago with dreams of a better life, one where violence wasn't the norm.

(a related article and video)

Halima's shooting is one of three that happened in just a 24-hour period in that city.

Bullets don't know when to stop.