A 16-year-old Bronx boy was shot in the back while trying to run away from a group of masked assailants, police and witnesses said Friday.
Cops are investigating if the shooting was related to an earlier incident in the same area, police sources told the Daily News.
Cops responding to a call about a man shot near E. 161st St. and Forest Ave. in the South Bronx found the boy with a gunshot wound to the back around 9:30 a.m., police said.
EMS rushed the boy in stable condition to Harlem Hospital. He is expected to recover.
The victim was walking alone when a group of three or four young men, all wearing masks, appeared and shouted out a name, prompting the victim to turn around and start running in the opposite direction, said a 38-year-old woman who witnessed the scene but asked not to be identified.
“They called the other boy’s name, and when they called his name he responded. One young man approached him, pulled out a weapon, fired, and as he was trying to run away, he fell,” she said.
“I saw him get hit in the back, and I went to do triage,” said the witness, a former nurse. “I called 911. Hopefully he’s okay.”
The wound “wasn’t bleeding a lot, but it was close to the spine,” said the witness, who stayed with the victim until the ambulance arrived. “He was conscious. He was okay. I told him to relax and not to move and to stay down, and I assessed the wound,” she said.
The witness, who was working on a construction job nearby, said she quit nursing after eight years because it was too traumatic. The shooting made her think about her own child, she said.
“I’m still in shock, because I had just checked my cameras in my house and my 16 year old is at home, washing the dishes for me,” she said. “So, yeah. I cried a little bit and got back to work.”
After the victim collapsed, the group dispersed, the witness said.
Police are investigating the shooting, which may be connected to an earlier shooting in the same area in which no one was hurt, a source told The News.
Cops could not immediately confirm if the two incidents were related, or provide information about a possible earlier shooting.
