Police say that that more than 70 bullets were fired in a Birmingham shooting that sent a young girl and her mother to the hospital.

Officer Truman Fitzgerald said the dozens of rounds were fired from multiple shooters. Investigators said they recovered spent shell casings from both handguns and rifles.

Police initially said the wounded child was 4 years old but later learned she had just celebrated her fifth birthday, Fitzgerald said Thursday.

“The degree of selfishness and heartlessness to fire that many rounds in a housing community where it is a known fact they are heavily populated with children, we are lucky we’re not burying another child,” he said.

The gunfire erupted about 8 p.m. in the 3000 block of 29th Avenue North in the city’s Collegeville housing community.

At the scene, officers found the woman and the girl in a front yard suffering from gunshot wounds.

Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service personnel took the woman to UAB Hospital while the girl was taken to Children’s Hospital. They are recovering.

Authorities said the woman and her daughter were standing outside their apartment when a group of people pulled up in a vehicle and opened fire.

Fitzgerald said he believed that apartment was specifically targeted, but several others were also struck.

No arrests have been made, but he said the department’s Real Time Crime Center has been instrumental with the ongoing investigation.

“We have a popular idea in our culture that if we have an issue with someone we’re ust going to pull up into a house … and fire recklessly into an apartment,” Fitzgerald said at Wednesday night’s scene. “I’ve got news for you: you never hit your intended target. But I’ll tell you who you do end up hitting. You end up hitting 2-year-old Major Turner. You end up hitting 12-year-old Audrianna Pearson. And tonight we’re on the scene yet again where an innocent child has bene struck by gunfire who had nothing to do with this scenario.

“So my challenge to everyone in Birmingham is we need to stop babysitting this type of mentality and we all need to take it upon ourselves to adopt a law enforcement mindset,” Fitzgerald continued. “Who in their right mind is bold enough to come into Collegeville with all these kids … and you fire this many rounds into an apartment. And we are blessed that we have not had a child killed tonight and this child will survive.”

Anyone with information is asked to call detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.

AL.com reporter Howard Koplowitz contributed to this report.