SEATTLE » A 1-year-old girl was shot in the head and critically wounded as she sat in a car with her parents in suburban Seattle.

Detectives in Kent initially suggested road rage as a motive, but Cmdr. Jarod Kasner told The Seattle Times on Friday that police no longer think that’s the case.

"This does not appear to be a random incident" he said in an email Friday night, adding police were following all leads and consider the shooting a top priority. He declined to release any other details.

The baby was shot in the head Thursday afternoon while sitting in a car seat in the back of a silver Chevrolet Impala, Kent police spokeswoman Melanie Robinson said. Her parents were in the front seat when a black car pulled alongside, and the driver and a passenger in that vehicle opened fire before driving off, police said.

Susan Gregg, a spokeswoman for Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, said the baby was in critical condition Friday.

The shooting took place at an intersection near an apartment complex.

Linda Johnston, who lives nearby, ran outside after she heard gunshots.

"I was sitting in my bedroom here and heard the shots. ‘Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam," she told Seattle television station KOMO. "The baby was on the ground, and other people were doing CPR on the baby, and the mother was in hysterics and the dad was in hysterics, too."