Girl, 9, shot answering door at Hercules home

(12-04) 06:08 PST HERCULES -- A 9-year-old girl was shot and injured after she answered the door of a Hercules home, police said Saturday.

The incident happened on the 100 block of Brighton in a neighborhood north of Highway 4 at about 10:25 p.m. Friday, said Doreen Mathews, a Hercules police spokeswoman.

Someone knocked on the front door of the home and fired one shot when the girl answered, Mathews said. The assailant then fired nine to 10 more shots before fleeing on foot, police said.

The girl was shot in her neck and back, Mathews said. She was taken to Children's Hospital Oakland, where she was upgraded from critical to stable condition Saturday morning, police said. Her name wasn't released.

No arrests have been made, and a motive is under investigation. Police did not say whether they believe anyone at the home had been a target.

The shooting is the latest in the Bay Area in which victims have been shot while answering the door.

In September, a 57-year-old man was shot dead in the doorway of his home in San Francisco's Bayview district by two men who rang the doorbell. In August, a 25-year-old man was shot and killed when he answered the door of his San Leandro home.

Similar slayings have happened in Concord and Oakland.

E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page C - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle