A 16-year-old girl was accidentally shot in the head by a friend moments after the teen shot a bystander in the leg near the historic Stonewall Inn as Manhattan Pride celebrations were winding down, police said Monday.
The teen shot in the head is clinging to life after being swept up in an explosion of violence between her group of friends and a rival group. Both groups were in Greenwich Village to celebrate Pride, police said.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Monday that the bloodshed had nothing to do with bigotry. Another teen girl was stabbed, her lung punctured, during the melee.
“This was not a hate crime,” he said. “This was a targeted act of violence.”
The mayhem began about 10:10 p.m. on Sunday in Sheridan Square, feet from the Stonewall National Monument and less than two blocks from the Stonewall Inn, as Pride Month celebrations were winding down.
As jubilant celebrants flooded the area, two smaller groups in that crowd separated themselves from the pack, eyeing each other.
The 16-year-old girl, who was with about a dozen friends, “weaves her way through the crowd — it’s clear she is targeting a specific male,” Kenny said.
The teen, armed with a 9-mm. handgun, “walks right up to him, places the gun within inches of his face, pulls the trigger twice” but somehow missed, Kenny said.
“I don’t know how he didn’t get shot in the head,” Kenny said of the girl’s intended target.
Instead, one of the bullets struck a 17-year-old girl, “a total innocent bystander” who was 100 feet away and standing with a friend, Kenny said.
The bullet hit that victim in her left thigh, the bullet exiting then lodging in her right thigh. The girl, visiting from New Jersey to attend the Pride March, was rushed by medics to Northwell Greenwich Village Hospital.
As scores of people ran for cover, the shooter and her friends ran off, but moments later a male in that group turned and fired toward the rival group. He let off four rounds, one of them unintentionally striking the 16-year-old shooter in the head.
“She drops to the floor and she is abandoned by the group,” Kenny said. “She’s left there by herself.”
Medics rushed her to Bellevue Hospital in critical condition. Her gun was found next to her.
The gunman who mistakenly shot her ran off and is being sought. He was wearing a black face mask.
“It’s astounding,” said Conor Weiss, 66, who lives in the neighborhood and was walking his dog when the shooting happened. “I heard the bang. … All of a sudden everyone was running that way and there were cops running this way.”
“She was on the ground and she had a tourniquet around her leg,” Weiss said of the wounded bystander. “She seemed pretty alert and she was talking to the cops.”
Meanwhile, police were called to Bellevue Hospital at 12:31 a.m. on Monday after a stabbed 17-year-old girl showed up there. That girl told cops she was attending a post-Pride event with the girl who was shot in the head — but refused to answer questions about what unfolded, police sources said.
The stabbing victim was seen on video with the group responsible for the shootings, Kenny said. It’s not clear who stabbed her.
Kenny said it is not clear if the shooting was sparked by gang tensions. When gangs are at war, he noted, a shoot-on-sight edict is usually in place, with one group targeting the other. The 16-year-old girl is not in the NYPD gang database.
Cops recovered six shell casings from the scene in addition to the critically wounded girl’s gun, officials said.
The 1969 Stonewall Riots, sparked by a police raid of the gay bar, ignited the ongoing nationwide LGBTQ movement.
Mayor Adams lamented Sunday’s violence.
“During a time when our city should be rejoicing and celebrating members of our diverse LGBTQ+ community, incidents like this are devastating,” Adams posted on X late Sunday. “The NYPD will work quickly and tirelessly to bring the suspects to justice.”
The gunplay was unusual for the NYPD’s 6th Precinct, which had seen zero shootings this year through June 22 and zero shootings during the same time frame last year.
“I was in the surrounding area about 10 minutes before it happened and it was joy and all that,” said Jake Farrell, 33, who has lived in the West Village for two years. “It didn’t seem like it was going to be gunshots.”
Originally Published: June 29, 2025 at 11:11 PM EDT
