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A 5-year-old girl walking with her parents along a residential street in a neighborhood rife with gang-related violence was shot in the back after she was caught in a rumble, police said Tuesday.
The girl suffered a collapsed lung and was hospitalized in stable condition after the incident Monday evening in the Ridgewood neighborhood in Queens.
About 10 members of the notorious Bloods gang walked up behind the family, possibly to brawl with members of a rival gang known as the Trinitarios, police said.
The girl's father saw a man on a stoop in front of them draw a machete, and he started to run for cover with the family when the girl was struck in the back, police said.
A 28-year-old man also was wounded in the shooting and was hospitalized in stable condition.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said at least two guns were used in the attack.
There have been previous gang disputes between the Bloods and its offshoots and the Trinitarios in the area and in bordering neighborhoods, Kelly said. Additional police patrols have been set up, and detectives and narcotics officers are watching the area.
"The gang division is focused on that area," Kelly said.
Police arrested a 19-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy who supposedly are members of the Trinitarios and were involved in the dispute. Police said they believe a member of the Bloods gang shot the girl, but they didn't release the person's identity.
Crime remains 3 percent lower this year than last year, but there was a slight increase in crime from last year in the three precincts where the gang violence is occurring, police statistics show.
The New York Post reported last week that a new offshoot of the Bloods gang known as the Pretty Boy Goonies has been clashing with the Trinitarios since September, fighting for turf in Rodney Park under the Brooklyn- Queens Expressway near the Williamsburg Bridge, not far from Ridgewood.
City Councilwoman Diana Reyna said the groups have been fighting in broad daylight, wielding machetes and screwdrivers. The Trinitarios are a Dominican gang, and the Bloods were founded in Los Angeles.
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