Reward offered in search for ‘multiple’ shooters after girl shot while sleeping

CHARLOTTE — A reward is now being offered after an 8-year-old girl was shot while sleeping last month.

Police said a northwest Charlotte home on Burbank Drive was shot into shortly after 1 a.m. on April 24, hurting Olivia Velez. She was taken to the hospital, where doctors found fragments of a bullet had entered her brain.

In a news conference Wednesday, Capt. Matthew Horner said there were nine children and seven adults inside the home at the time of the shooting. He said the home was intentionally targeted and that police believe believe multiple shooters committed the crime.

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Olivia’s mother, Annie Campbell, said her daughter is a fighter, but she has a long road ahead of her.

“She’s fighting. She’s fighting hard,” she told Channel 9′s Hunter Sáenz last month. “She’s trying to wake up, I know she is. She can hear me.”

At the end of April, her mother said Olivia could not move her left side, but could lift her right arm and leg. She couldn’t talk but had tried to pull out some of her tubes, which her mother said was her strong spirit.

Olivia and her mom The mother of an 8-year-old girl spoke to Channel 9 after her daughter was shot inside their northwest Charlotte home. Annie Campbell said her daughter Olivia is a fighter, but she has a long road ahead in the hospital.

On Wednesday, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department announced a reward in the case. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is offering a $2,500 reward, and Crime Stoppers is offering $5,000 for any leads in the case.

“This is a deeply tragic incident and we’re asking for the community’s help to solve this case,” Lt. Kevin Pietrus said Wednesday.

“Because of the intentional reckless act of multiple individuals, Olivia is still in the hospital -- and recovering,” Horner said. “It has been almost a week and a half at this point. And these individuals responsible are not in custody.”

Horner said the case hits home for him and other officers who are parents.

“I can say as a father of two kids -- everybody up here standing with me are also parents -- it should infuriate anybody out there that’s proud to be a citizen of Charlotte that these people are not in custody,” he said. “It is shameful that someone knows something and we have not gotten enough information to close this case.”

He said he felt deeply for Campbell and Velez.

“A parent should not have to worry that their child goes to bed on a Sunday night before school on Monday morning, and in the middle of the night, their house gets shot into, and their 8-year-old daughter gets shot in the head,” Horner said.

(WATCH BELOW: Only on 9: ‘She’s fighting hard,’ says mother of 8-year-old shot while sleeping)