Elvia Malagon , Rosemary Regina Sobol and Alexandra Chachkevitch:

Her hair braided carefully around a white bandage, 6-year-old Zariah McCray-Muhammad held onto her mother with one hand and a dozen balloons with the other as she returned home in Chatham Sunday, three days after being shot in the head.

Hours later, about six miles away, 6-year-old India Tucker just got back from the beach when two young men stepped out of a gangway, shouted a gang slogan and opened fire, according to police and her family. India was hit in the right arm, breaking a bone.