A 13-year-old girl was shot after 11 bullets burst through a home’s front window: ‘She was just screaming’

The kids were sitting by the window when the bullets burst through.

It was around 12:50 a.m. Tuesday, and Adriane Brown’s four great-nieces and great-nephews, ages 11 to 15, had spent the evening at the Philadelphia Auto Show with their father, she said. They returned to Brown’s Southwest Philadelphia home fairly late, she said, and the family was preparing for bed and deciding where everyone would sleep.

That’s when the door flew open, and the shots rang out.

“It was a quiet night turned upside down,” said Brown, 65.

Outside, a 27-year-old man, who is a close friend of Brown’s family, was being chased by two gunmen, police said. He tried to run into a nearby bar for shelter, but the door was locked, Brown said he later told her. He then noticed that Brown’s front porch light was on, and in a moment of desperation, he said, he ran into her house for refuge.

But the shooters wouldn’t relent. They fired more than 30 shots at the rowhouse. Eleven bullets went through the front bay window.

Just on the other side of that window, Brown’s great-niece and great-nephew were sitting in two yellow armchairs, talking and watching TV. As the shots rang out, the 15-year-old boy dropped to the floor, Brown said. But his 13-year-old sister stood up to try to run to the back of the house, and a bullet struck her in the back of the shoulder.

Additional shots were mere centimeters from hitting the girl, Brown said.

“She was just screaming,” Brown recalled, standing beneath two bullet holes in her wall.

Brown ran outside and flagged down responding police officers, who rushed the girl to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She remained in the hospital Tuesday afternoon, recovering from surgery in stable condition. The bullet broke her shoulder bone, Brown said.

No one else was injured. No arrest has been made, but police are actively investigating leads, said Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore.

Brown described the girl as “a beautiful child.” She’s tall for her age, she said, and loves to cook for her family — spaghetti and garlic bread is her favorite.

The girl and her three brothers, ages 11, 14, and 15, live in Branchville, S.C. with their father, Brown said, but the family has been staying with her in Philadelphia for the last two months as he tried out a new job. The kids had not yet enrolled in school in Philadelphia, she said, as they awaited a decision on whether the family would stay.

Now, she said, they’ll likely return to South Carolina.

“If they’re going to shoot his daughter, now he’s worried about his boys,” she said of their father.

Brown, who’s lived in her home, near 65th and Dicks Streets in Elmwood, for 16 years, remained shaken Tuesday afternoon. She hadn’t eaten, and had barely slept. The girl’s brothers were staying at their other aunt’s house, while their parents were at the hospital.

Brown said she worries about how the shooting will affect the girl and the other children in the house, both mentally and physically. Another one of Brown’s great-nephews, who is 7, was upstairs sleeping when the violence erupted, she said, and the 11-year-old boy was sleeping downstairs on the couch.

“He was just petrified,” she said.

Brown said she doesn’t blame the man who ran into her house — he was just trying to stay alive.

But the shooters, she said, “they don’t value life, they don’t value people. We had kids in here, we had 10 people in here.”

So far this year, 16 juveniles have been shot in Philadelphia.

Three teens have been killed: Isaiah Odom, 17, a generous brother and drummer for his church; Semaj Richardson, 16, an aspiring rapper; and Shaheed Saoud, 16, a loyal friend and devout Muslim.

As of Monday night, 41 people have been killed in homicides in Philadelphia this year. That’s about 18% fewer than at the same time last year, but higher than the numbers seen before the pandemic.

Brown said she was praying for her niece and looking forward to welcoming her home, though she’s not sure if the girl will be comfortable staying there.

“I just thank God because it could have been worse,” Brown said. “She’s alive, everybody’s all right.”

As Brown stood in the front window Tuesday afternoon, cool, winter air whistled through the spider-web-like holes. How would she fix those? she wondered. She said she didn’t yet know — and the weather isn’t getting any warmer.

Staff writer Beatrice Forman contributed to this article.