The red rental car had stopped abruptly along a York street Sunday afternoon.

Ciara Savage, 9, and her friends saw it as they were playing with their scooters on a sidewalk in the city's South Side section.

A small group of neighborhood men hanging out there saw the car, too.

"Run!" one of the men shouted.

The driver stepped from the car. He carried a black handgun, a witness told police.

Four shots rang out.

The driver got behind the wheel of his car and drove away, according to court records.

And Savage, a third-grader at Ross Elementary School in Lancaster, was sprawled on the sidewalk bleeding from her torso and mouth.

She died a short time later.

Police now allege the shooting that killed the North Shippen Street girl was the result of an earlier bar fight involving members of rival neighborhood crews.

Savage wasn't the target.

"It's one of those sad days when innocent people in the street become victims of something not related to them," York City Police Lt. Tim Utley told the York Dispatch.

The driver of that red car, the man who allegedly fired the gun, is now in custody. Nigel Ali Maitland, 19, of 602 Smith St., York, surrendered to York city police about 7:30 p.m. Monday, according to Detective Jeff Spence.

Maitland was charged with homicide, conspiracy to commit homicide and illegal firearm possession in connection with the Mother's Day killing.

An autopsy Monday morning at Lehigh Valley Medical Center showed Savage died from a single gunshot to the back, according to the York County Coroner's Office. Her death has been ruled a homicide.

According to court documents filed by York police, the shooting appears to have been sparked by an earlier fight between members of two gangs, the South Side gang and the Parkway Projects gang.

Maitland lives near the Parkway housing complex.

The fight broke out about 1:30 a.m. Sunday inside a city bar. A Parkway gang member was beaten up by "a Southsider," police said.

Around 2:30 p.m., Savage was playing with her cousin and some other children. The girl and her family were visiting Savage's aunt, Tracy DeShields.

According to a girl identified on the police documents only as "a juvenile witness," a group of males between the ages of 14 and 21 were standing near where the children were playing. One of the males suddenly yelled, "Run!"

The witness saw a "new, red four-door vehicle" that appeared to be a rental car pull over on the same side of the street where the children were playing. A man got out of the driver's seat and aimed a black handgun sideways. A second man remained in the car's front passenger seat, the report states.

Another witness said he saw someone throw a rock at the shooter's vehicle as it drove away. The rock broke off the passenger-side mirror, he said. Police recovered the mirror.

Police later found an abandoned red 2008 Dodge Avenger behind 227 Front St., York, with damage to the passenger door and a missing passenger-side mirror.

Tracing the car through its rental agency, police found and questioned the man who had rented it. He told police he rented the car for a man he knows as "G" in exchange for drugs. Shown a photo lineup, the man identified "G" as Maitland.

According to police documents, Maitland has two juvenile convictions, one for robbery in 2002 and another in 2008 for possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance.

The passenger in the red car also was seen to have a gun, police said. The passenger had not been arrested as of late this morning.

Police said their investigation is not yet complete, and more arrest warrants are pending.

"We know that there was more than one person shooting from the car," Utley told the York Daily Record.

Savage lived in an apartment on North Shippen Street. A telephone number had been disconnected, and no one answered the door at the apartment today.

Before attending Ross Elementary on North Queen Street, Savage attended Wharton Elementary on North Mary Street. The principals of the two schools, Camile Hopkins and Jackie Hair, have not returned phone calls.


Staff writer Tom Murse can be reached at tmurse@LNPnews.com or 481-6021.