SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The San Diego Police Department says a teen girl was shot as she left a party off of El Cajon Blvd. in the Talmadge area early Saturday morning.
SDPD Lt. Adam Sharki confirmed to ABC 10News the 17-year-old victim left a party in the area of 4400 Winona Ave. around 12:50 a.m. Police say based on witness statements, two groups of people were fighting at the same location. Someone in one of the groups took out a gun and shot it multiple times.
The girl was shot once in the upper back, and the people who were fighting ran off in different directions, according to SDPD's watch commander log.
Sharki says the victim was taken to a hospital in the area to receive treatment for serious, yet non-life-threatening, injuries.
ABC 10News spoke to Tamesha Wallace, the victim's mother, Saturday afternoon.
"When we arrived at the scene it was 1 a.m," Wallace says. "She was already gone in the ambulance."
Wallace says her daughter was shot at a sweet 16 birthday party. She says she raced to El Cajon Boulevard to help her daughter, but by the time she got there, the teen was already headed to the hospital.
"We were calling her phone to pick her up from the party and her friends answered hysterically," Wallace said. "[The friends were] telling us that she was hit and on the floor and couldn't move."
At first, Wallace didn't believe it.
"We thought it was a prank, or they were joking — it's Halloween or something," she said.
Wallace's daughter, who she is not naming, is expected to survive.
"We do understand there is some damage to the spine, so that is very concerning to us," her uncle, Shane Harris, said.
Witnesses told police the shooter, who is still at large, was a male in a gray hooded sweatshirt and dark pants, but they didn't know his exact age. Harris is offering a $3,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest.
Details are limited at this time as SDPD continues its preliminary investigation. SDPD's street gang unit responded to the shooting and is investigating.
"Detectives are investigating the case. They are in the process of collecting video evidence, looking for and interviewing witnesses, and asking anyone with information to call police or crime stoppers," Sharki told ABC 10News.
