Girl, 5, Shot At Birthday Party in Bridgeport

BRIDGEPORT, CT — A 5-year-old girl from New Jersey was shot this week while at a birthday party, according to police. Arianna Sulaiman of Pemberton, NJ, who came from a Kurdish family that had fled violence in their native Iraq, was in a Bridgeport apartment attending a birthday party Sunday when she was shot in the hand, according to the Connecticut Post.

"My daughter screamed — I didn't know she'd gotten shot!” the girl’s father told the publication. “She threw herself on me and I saw the blood — that's when I realized it was more than just a (birthday) balloon.”

Her father told News12 that the bullet came through a front window in the home. “I was holding my daughter’s hand at the time,” says Masud Sulaiman. “I gave her to my sister. She was holding her blood, her arm, while I came outside.”

The girl was taken to a hospital to be treated for a broken bone in her hand. A 73-year-old man working on his car was also hit by the gunfire, according to the report.

Bridgeport police say that the shooting was gang related, but no arrests have been made. The family were formerly farmers in a village three hours from Erbil, Iraq, according to the Post.

We'll have more information when it's available.

Story by Tom Davis, Patch Staff