Girl, 4, may have been caught in East Oakland crossfire

Tyanni Miller, 4, of Union City was shot in the chest after her father and other men fired paintball guns from their car, prompting someone to return fire, police say. Tyanni Miller, 4, of Union City was shot in the chest after her father and other men fired paintball guns from their car, prompting someone to return fire, police say. Photo: Courtesy Of Chelsea Hunter Photo: Courtesy Of Chelsea Hunter Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Girl, 4, may have been caught in East Oakland crossfire 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

A 4-year-old girl who may have been caught in crossfire between two cars was shot in the chest Tuesday afternoon in East Oakland, police said.

The girl, identified as Tyanni Miller, of Union City, was shot through a car window about 4:10 p.m. near the corner of 77th Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard while she sat in her car seat while being driven by her father. She was expected to survive.

The gunfire caused her father, who was not struck, to crash the car. An Alameda County sheriff’s deputy placed the victim in a patrol cruiser and rushed her to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland.

Family members followed the patrol cruiser to the hospital. Other family members, including Tyanni’s grandparents, gathered in the hospital parking lot to receive updates from the girl’s mother, Chelsea Hunter, who was going back and forth from the parking lot to her daughter’s bedside while sobbing.

“She’s being stitched up right now,” said the girl’s grandmother, Trina Davis. “She said to me ‘Hi granny.’ I’m still really shocked. Just keep praying for her and all the other innocent children.”

An older man who identified himself as the girl’s grandfather said he was relieved to hear from the mother that she would survive.

“I’m happy she’s (going to be) all right but it’s disturbing that this is what Oakland is right now,” the grandfather said.

The shooting of Tyanni came three months after the fatal West Oakland shooting of Chyemil Pierce, 30, who was caught in the crossfire in a gun battle as she walked her 7- and 9-year-old children home at 30th and Chestnut streets. Six suspects have been arrested in connection with the killing.

A cousin, Zina Bailey, said Tyanni’s survival was “a miracle” and that Oakland “needs to come together as a community and stop killing one another.”

Preliminary reports indicated that the girl may have been caught in the crossfire between two vehicles whose occupants were firing both real bullets and paint balls.

Afterward, the Oakland police helicopter was flying overhead, trying to identify possible suspects to officers on the ground.

At the scene of the shooting, a bystander said she saw a large number of police and heard a woman say, “My baby’s been shot.”

Henry K. Lee, Vivian Ho, Hamed Aleaziz and Steve Rubenstein are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. E-mail: hlee@sfchronicle.com, vho@sfchronicle.com, haleaziz@sfchronicle.com, srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @henryklee