Chief Godbee Has Good News About Crime. Then A 3-Year-Old Is Shot.

Nearly three dozen top Detroit cops and other officers hosted a meeting Tuesday evening to discuss the city's crime rate.

The good news: They say they are  making progress in the face of deep budget cuts.

In attendance: Only about a dozen residents, and  some complained that the meeting at New Providence Baptist Church had been poorly publicized, according to Free Press reporter Bill Laitner.

And just before the meeting began at 6 p.m., the shooting of a 3-year-old girl on the city's east side prompted Chief Ralph Godbee Jr. to leave the meeting and respond to the scene, at Cardoni near State Fair, where the girl was shot while inside a vehicle.

 The girl was in serious condition Tuesday night at Children's Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, a police spokeswoman told the paper. She apparently was not the intended victim.

Back at the meeting, Laitner reported, Assistant Chief Chester Logan said: "It's a wonderful thing that we're in a church tonight. I've just heard that the child did not expire.

 "Amen," said some audience members.