Ezequiel Cornejo, 23, a tire mechanic, said he heard about 10 gunshots, probably from a handgun, just after neighborhood schools let out.
"After that I saw a little girl running, she was running back to the school, she was holding her arm," he said.
The shooting occurred around 3:15 p.m. at Central and Vernon avenues. Two of the victims ran away and were found wounded outside a nearby middle school, police Officer Sara Faden said.
The critically wounded were a 10-year-old girl, an 11-year-old girl, a 12-year-old girl and a 49-year-old woman, said Fire Department spokeswoman d'Lisa Davies.
A 12-year-old girl, a 14-year-old boy and two men, ages 48 and 68, had minor injuries.
It was the second major outburst of street violence in the city in a week's span.
Gang-related shootings carried out in broad daylight in the city's northeast area on Feb. 21 led to a gunbattle in which police killed one gunman, wounded another and swarmed a neighborhood with heavily armed officers who captured a third suspect. Police said the gunbattle involved members of a notorious gang entrenched in that area for decades.
