The mother of three children who were shot in a Toronto playground says her youngest child kept asking if she was going to die following the incident.

The woman travelled in the ambulance with the five-year-old, who had been shot in the stomach, while a neighbour accompanied the nine-year-old, who had been hit in the leg.

“I couldn’t help her. I couldn’t take away her pain, I couldn’t take out the bullet,” the mother, who did not want to be identified, told CTV Toronto in an exclusive interview. “I can’t even imagine what she was going through at such a small age, to take a bullet.”

The woman’s seven-year-old daughter was grazed on the head in the brazen shooting in Scarborough on June 14.

The girls had been playing soccer in the playground on Alton Towers Circle, in the area of McCowan Road and McNicoll Avenue, when the gunfire began.

The woman said one of her daughters thought the shots were fireworks at first.

“She tried to run as fast as she could to dodge the bullet, but she couldn’t.”

Police said three suspects arrived to the park in a rented vehicle, where two of them got out and started towards a man who was at the park with his young child.

Police arrested 21-year-old Sheldon Eriya in connection with the shooting and are asking the public for assistance in tracking down two more suspects, who’ve been identified as Tarrick Rhoden, 23, and T’Quan Robertson, 23.

The mother wants those responsible for the attack to turn themselves in.

“How do you sleep at night? How do you look at yourself in the mirror knowing you hurt innocent kids for no reason?,” she said.

While all three girls survived the attack, the scars, both physical and mental, are still fresh. The woman said her five-year-old cries every day.

“They did a lot of damage to my daughter’s stomach long-term. We don’t even know if she can even have kids,” the mother said.

The woman said her children have nightmares and at least one of her daughters doesn’t want to leave her mother’s side.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help assist the family with extra medical expenses and any other costs incurred during rehabilitation.

With a report from CTV Toronto’s Tamara Cherry