A 14-year-old boy was shot in the leg on his way to school by a gunman who waited in ambush at a Bronx bus stop Wednesday as the teen’s family looked on in horror, the victim’s older sister told the Daily News.
Police sources said the teenage victim, who is affiliated with a local gang, was the intended target of the shooter. It was at least the second time in two weeks someone under 18 has been hit by gunfire in the city, police said.
The Bronx victim had just left his apartment in NYCHA’s Soundview Houses on Rosedale Ave. near Seward Ave. with his father and younger sister when shots rang out about 7:30 a.m.
“It’s just sad. These kids are just getting younger and younger and killing each other,” the victim’s older sister, who declined to share her name, told the Daily News. “They’re getting access to guns. It’s 7 in the morning — people are trying to get to school!”
The victim’s older sister said her family was getting into their vehicle parked across the street from their apartment building when the gunman, wearing a black ski mask and black Nike Air Force sneakers, emerged from a nearby bus stop and opened fire on her brother.
“He was putting my baby sister in the passengers seat,” the older sister said. “My brother sat in the back and my sister got in the front because her school was closer.”
“My dad was putting my sister in the car when the guy walked up,” she added. “They waited until my dad turned his back. It was like someone was waiting and watching.”
A neighbor witnessed the attempt on the boy’s life.
“The car was parked and the father, daughter and little boy were going in the car and then all of a sudden it seems like a young kid ran to the car and just shot the car,” said the neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous. “I never witnessed nothing like this… and I’ve been here for six, seven years.”
Medics rushed the teen to Jacobi Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the left leg. He is expected to recover.
“He is okay,” his older sister said. “He is out of surgery and everything.”
The shooting is believed to be linked to gang activity in the neighborhood, a police source said. The teen was arrested in December for carrying a loaded firearm, according to the source.
While cops says the gunman was after the victim, his older sister wonders if it was a case of mistaken identity.
“My brother wears the attire they wear, Nike Tech,” she said.
The victim and his family moved into the Soundview Houses less than a year ago. The boy did not recognize the gunman who attacked him, his older sister said.
“I was always worried moving down here, because of the projects,” said the older sister. “Why is this happening to us? It could happen to anybody, but everyone in this house has something going for them.”
The gunman, who was dressed all in black, ran off. No arrests have been made.
Several shots were fired, with at least one bullet hitting a nearby car window.
Cops were scouring the area for surveillance footage in the hopes of tracking down and arresting the shooter.
On April 27 in Queens, a 15-year-old boy was left paralyzed after he was shot in the back on a Manhattan-bound A train at it was approaching the 80th St. station in Ozone Park.
One of the two suspects in the shooting, another 15-year-old boy, was arrested last week, charged with weapon possession for carrying the pistol the shooter used, prosecutors said.
The actual shooter in the Queens shooting has not been caught.
The bloodshed comes as the NYPD amps up its fight against teen gun violence. So far this year through April 19, 29 of the city’s 201 shooting victims have been under age 18, accounting for 14% of the victims, according to the NYPD.
