Chicago girl, 8, shot by man upset with kids making noise

August 7, 2023

An 8-year-old girl riding a scooter outside her home in Chicago was shot dead Saturday by an aggravated neighbor who had complained about neighborhood kids making noise.

The girl, identified as Sarabi Medina, was on her scooter heading home from an ice cream truck at about 9:40 p.m. when the gunman ran over from his apartment across the street and shot her in the head, WGNTV reported.

The gunman was then tackled by the girl’s father, who witnessed the shooting, according to a witness report obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.

The gunman was shot above his left eye and his weapon was recovered from the scene.

Police said the girl was pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital.

The gunman was taken to Illinois Masonic Medical Center in critical condition. No charges have been filed.

shooting — An eight-year-old Chicago girl was shot dead while riding her scooter Saturday night.

Megan Kelley, a neighbor of Sarabi’s family, told the Sun-Times that the man had a reputation for complaining about kids playing outside on the block — and that neighbors would try to avoid him.

“Just little kids playing, he would come out just yelling about the noise. It just didn’t make sense, none of it made sense,” Kelley said. “Everybody in the community would just tell him they are just kids having fun playing, just let them be.”

“You kind of just stayed away from him,” Kelley said, adding that the family had been affected by gun violence before — the girl’s mother was killed in a shooting in 2019.

Stuffed animals and sunflowers were placed surrounding a tree near the scene of the shooting.