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Was 6-year-old shot in Avondale victim of revenge?

Rebecca Butts, and Cameron Knight
Cincinnati
Cincinnati Police Capt. Maris Herold speaks during a peace vigil. "When you involve a child, it takes things to the next level," Herold said while ensuring community members that the police will continue to seek out and arrest those committing violent crimes in their neighborhood.

The 6-year-old girl shot Sunday in Avondale remains in critical condition and has lost her left eye, said a neighborhood pastor who has been in contact with her family and witnessed the aftermath of the shooting.

China Kinebrew is undergoing further surgeries for a collapsed lung and other complications, according to Pastor Ennis Tait of the Church of the Living God at a prayer vigil Monday.

Police said Monday the target was China's stepfather, O'Bryant Carr, 26, who was also shot and remains hospitalized.

China and Carr were shot near Hale and Harvey avenues around 2 p.m. Sunday. The shooting stemmed from an ongoing dispute between Carr and another group, said Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley.

Carr was convicted of involuntary manslaughter when he was 13, Cranley said, and that 2003 shooting left one dead, one wounded and one paralyzed. He was sentenced to six years in juvenile detention.

The Cincinnati Police Gang Unit is investigating Sunday's shooting. No suspects have been named. Police have indicated they are looking for three people, but community members are demanding an end to the violence as a whole.

"The whole city is praying for China," Cranley said.

More than 30 leaders, pastors, police and local residents gathered at the site of the shooting for the prayer vigil.

"We are not going to give up on Avondale," Tait said. "We're looking beyond the crime, we're looking beyond the shootings, we're looking beyond the homicides, and we can see a brighter day coming."

Ozie Davis, executive director of the Avondale Comprehensive Development Corp., spoke directly to two girls in the crowd who live in a building overlooking the corner where the shooting happened.

"We're going to make it safe. The reason we're here is for you," Davis said to them. "We will never ever stop until you can be comfortable on these streets in this neighborhood, just like I was when I grew up."

Law enforcement attended the rally as well.

"For those of you that are doing the shooting, one by one we are going to get you," said Cincinnati police Capt. Maris Herold. "Any time that you shoot a child, that's a different story, and it's not going to be tolerated."

Pastor Donald Jones with Greater New Hope Baptist Church ended the vigil with prayers for the entire city to unite against violence.

"We're asking for your people to rise up and come out and be involved in this process," Jones said in the prayer. "Bring healing, bring deliverance, bring peace within our our communities and within this city."

Reporters Sharon Coolidge and Henry Molski contributed.