By Reid Forgrave
The Cincinnati Enquirer

OVER-THE-RHINE - Across Lang Street at McMicken from a game of pick-up basketball, 7-year-old E'jhia Mincy was riding bikes with her cousins and friends Sunday evening when two men began arguing near Martin Bar.

One of the men ran into a nearby apartment and emerged with a gun.

E'jhia's 10-year-old cousin, T'shawn Alexander, yelled at her, using her nickname: "Bootie, come over here 'cause they're gonna start shooting!"

One shot was fired, police said, missing its target and striking the Vine Elementary School second-grader in the right side of her chest.

E'jhia was taken to Children's Hospital, where family members said Sunday night she was undergoing surgery but appeared stable.

The hospital was unable to provide information on her condition.

Doctors thought the bullet may have pierced her lung, said an aunt, Twanda Alexander, but the girl was conscious and talking at the hospital.

Police continued looking for the shooter Sunday night, but did not have his name or much of a description.

As neighbors gathered on their stoops shortly after the shooting and told their kids to stay inside, detectives interviewed the man they said was the intended victim in the back of a police cruiser.

The man said he recognized the shooter, but didn't know his name or where he lived.

"I just hope somebody comes out and tells us who did this," said District 1 Cincinnati Police Sgt. Phillip Buccino.

"We just can't have this keep going on, especially with all the children in the street in the summertime. I'm sure within the next day we'll know who this is. People here aren't going to tolerate this anymore."

E'jhia had been visiting another aunt's house Sunday to play with her cousins.

Alexander said her niece is "a sweet, beautiful child." An hour after E'jhia was taken away in an ambulance, witnesses were still shaking.

"Our kids can't play outside," Alexander said. "It's just too dangerous. I don't let my kids go skating with a group of girls because you never know what could happen.

"If your children are outside, be out there with them. It's dangerous out here... You gotta stay off the corner."

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E-mail rforgrave@enquirer.com