string of drive-by shootings in the Lower Valley may be retaliation for gunfire

A string of drive-by shootings in the Lower Valley may be retaliation for gunfire that sent a 13-year-old girl to a Seattle hospital, where she remains in critical condition, detectives said Friday.

The girl’s family, who said she’s recovering from a blood-filled lung, calls the shootings a case of mistaken identity.

"We’re not retaliating against anybody," Silvia Rocha, the girl’s grandmother, said Friday in an interview at her Sunnyside home.

"I just want this to stop."

Late Thursday and early Friday morning, dozens upon dozens of rounds were fired into at least six homes from Granger to Grandview. Remarkably the gunfire hurt no one, but came close to the people inside, some of them small children, authorities said.

Detectives have made no arrests and have no suspects.

Authorities suspected all five shootings were gang-related and are investigating the possibility that they are retaliation for the Wednesday night drive-by shooting on 10th Street in Sunnyside that sent the girl to Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center.

Some members of the girl’s family have the last name of Flores, leading to speculation by police and others that her shooting is connected to Miguel Flores. Earlier this month, his court testimony helped convict on Outlook man, 23-year-old Jesus Fabian Perales, of the murder of 14-year-old Francisca Hernandez-Ramirez, whose throat was slit before her body was dumped in a Lower Valley canal. But Rocha and her family say they are not related to Miguel Flores.

"Maybe they confused it," she said.

Authorities said all the dots — or none of them — may connect in the spate of shootings.