A 4-year-old girl and her father were critically wounded in a shooting in Kensington

The strip of East Clementine Street in Kensington was empty Thursday afternoon, yellow and red caution tape littered among the trash. A white front door at one end of the block was splattered with blood, the steps spilled with a trail of red that led into the street.

These were the grim remnants of a shooting that erupted on the block Wednesday night and left a 4-year-old girl and her father fighting for their lives, and their neighbors distraught.

The 24-year-old man was outside his home, on the 2000 block of East Clementine Street, when a car sped down the block and a gunman started shooting about 9:30 p.m., said Capt. James Kearney, head of the non-fatal shootings unit.

The shooter fired at least 10 times, Kearney said, striking the man at least twice in the lower back and leg.

All the while, as the shots rang out, the man’s 4-year-old daughter was in the doorway of her home. A stray bullet flew through the doorway and struck her in the stomach, Kearney said.

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The girl’s mother was tending to the father outside, Kearney said, when her aunt began to scream. She emerged from the home carrying the child, who was bleeding profusely. The family jumped into the back of a blue Chevy Malibu and sped to the hospital.

On Thursday afternoon, the father was stable at Temple University Hospital, Kearney said, while his daughter remains in critical condition at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children.

No arrests have been made, though investigators have recovered video of the shooting and are “optimistic” about leads in the case, Kearney said. The motive remains under investigation.

The family, who neighbors said have lived on the block for about two years, could not be reached Thursday. Neighbors remained shaken by what had unfolded overnight.

A woman who lives on the block said she was in her home when she heard the shots, followed by the screeching wheels of a car and haunting screams.

She said her nieces and nephews love playing with the little girl. They often ride bikes together and play with the family’s dogs, she said.

“This should not have happened,” she said. “She’s a little girl, and now there’s all this blood.”

More than 120 children under 18 have been shot in Philadelphia this year, 20 of them age 12 and under. At least seven of the children were accidentally shot by relatives mishandling unattended guns, while the others, such as the 4-year-old girl in Kensington, were injured by stray bullets. Two children under 12 have died.

Wanda Maddox, who lives a street over, said the 4-year-old’s birthday was just the week before. She had just dropped a gift by the family home Wednesday afternoon, she said.

“I can’t believe it,” Maddox said. “I’m just going to pray for that baby.”