British police on Tuesday appealed to the public to find a man who shot and killed a nine-year-old girl as he entered her home while chasing another man.
The mother of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel opened the door to her house in Liverpool (North England) on Monday evening after hearing noise in the street.
A man then rushed in, pursued by a second who fired indiscriminately, wounding the mother of the family in the hand and killing the little girl who was behind her.
Police in Merseyside, the county of Liverpool, renewed their calls on Wednesday to expose the culprit of this murder which has shocked the British.
“Now is not the time for those who know who is responsible to remain silent. It is time for all of us to make Merseyside a place where the use of guns on our streets is completely unacceptable and those who use them must be held to account,” said Mark Kameen, a local police official, in a press release.
“If you have seen, heard, filmed or know of anything please tell us directly or anonymously,” he added.
The murder, 15 years after that of an 11-year-old boy who was shot and killed a few miles away as he was returning home after playing football, made headlines on Wednesday.
“Which side are you on?” demanded a local newspaper, the Liverpool Echo, urging its readers not to “leave the city to the thugs”.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson lamented on Twitter an “unimaginable tragedy”.
The 35-year-old man, who was shot in the attack and has since been hospitalized, was arrested for violating the conditions of his release from prison and will be questioned, police said.
He had been transported to the hospital by his friends who had left the little girl behind.