A drug deal in Homewood went awry last night, police said, sending three people -- including an 18-month-old girl -- to hospitals with gunshot wounds.

The shooting happened about 5:30 p.m. on a secluded stretch of Perchment Street, where, police said, more than one gunman opened fire on four people inside a black Jeep SUV. With a bullet hole through the windshield, the Jeep then drove about a mile to a B.P. gas station at 8936 Frankstown Road in Penn Hills, where the wounded called police.

A man in the front seat, a 23-year-old woman and the infant, both in back, were hurt, Pittsburgh police Chief Nate Harper said, though he did not know the extent of their injuries or where they were hospitalized. He said the woman suffered a graze wound and a shoulder injury, and the 18-month-old was struck by "a pellet" or a bullet fragment in the forehead. The man was also shot, Chief Harper said. Detectives were questioning a fourth man, also in the front of the Jeep, who was unharmed.

"It's unbelievable that someone would bring an infant to a drug deal," Chief Harper said, adding that the transaction was botched, but detectives were still sorting out the details. The group had traveled from Kittanning to the remote, cobblestone block of Perchment Street to buy drugs, he said. The hilly roadway dotted with homes is not visible from Frankstown Avenue, the closest major thoroughfare. "To come from Kittanning and find this spot, you'd kind of figure they'd been down here before," he said.

Farther down the street near Blackadore Avenue, police stopped a black and maroon Buick, from which, detectives said, the gunshots were fired. They were questioning a man and two women last night, but no arrests had been made, and Chief Harper said police were still looking for "a couple more actors" involved in the shooting.

One of the wounded told police that shots were fired from an AK-47 assault rifle. Another said the gunfire came from a handgun. No shell casings had been recovered last night. At the BP gas station, detectives studied the pock-marked Jeep, which had at least two gunshots to the hood and one through the windshield. Police recovered drugs at the scene, which will be sent to the county's crime lab to be identified.