A 5-year-old Bronx girl grazed behind the ear by a stray bullet fired during a broad daylight gun battle can’t wait to get out of the hospital and back to kindergarten, her emotional mother told the News.
The mother and daughter had just stepped out of a Five Below discount store after shopping for lip gloss and toys and were walking to a cab home when chaos erupted about 5:40 p.m. Wednesday.
“There was a group of guys, around 12 of them, and I said to my daughter, ‘Come on girl, they about to start fighting,’” the 42-year-old mother said in an exclusive interview. “As soon as I said those words to her, they started shooting.”
The mother, who asked not to be named, said she saw a young man snatch a large bag of weed out of the hands of a rival moments before shots rang out on Southern Blvd. near Westchester Ave.
Cops say three young men opened fire on an enemy group and suspect the shooting is gang related. Only the girl was struck.
The mother heard about 10 shots as she grabbed her daughter and ran into a nearby beauty supply store to take cover.
“[My daughter] was screaming like I never heard my child scream. So I’m like, ‘Girl we got to keep running,’” she said. “When we ran to the back of the store, she grabbed her ear and she was bleeding. She said, ‘My ear burns.’”
After a police officer confirmed the girl had been grazed behind her right ear, medics rushed her to Harlem Hospital, where she was recovering Thursday after cheating death by inches.
“It’s an open wound so she’s on antibiotics right now through an IV,” the mother said, adding that her daughter is also being given pain medication.
“She’s in kindergarten. Right now she even says, ‘Oh Mom, I want to go back to school. I’m missing school.’ She’s very big on school. So I’m telling her, ‘Your teachers want you to feel better.’”
The doctors hope to let the girl go home either Thursday evening or Friday. In the meantime, hospital staff have been “showering” her with gifts in aims to keep her spirits high, her mother said.
“She knows she got shot,’” the mother said. “She’s very smart for 5 years old. She just is saying, ‘Oh we got to be careful where we walk. We got to be careful when we go outside.”
The mom has a message for the shooters — and all who may have influenced them.
“You got to do better,” she said. “The parents, the home, the world too.”
“We have to give these kids something to do. There’s nothing really out here for these kids,” she added. “That’s why they’re out here on the streets doing what they’re not supposed to do.”
The two groups ran off. Cops recovered multiple bullets at the scene but no arrests have been made.
“Every last one of them kids that I saw had hoodies on and face masks, the mom said. “Everybody was covered up.”
Cops recovered footage of three of the shooters opening fire on their rivals and released the images Thursday, asking anyone with information on their identities or whereabouts to come forward.
The three shooters caught on camera were last seen running south on Southern Boulevard toward E. 163rd St.
One was wearing a green headscarf or hat, a black sweater and black sweatpants pulled down slightly to reveal pink-and-red underwear. He was carrying a brown backpack.
The second shooter was wearing a black sweater, black sweatpants and a black backpack while the third sported gray jeans, black sneakers and a black sweater with a white logo on the back.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential
