A teenage boy has been nabbed for mistakenly shooting a 16-year-old friend in the head moments after she pulled her own gun and wounded an innocent bystander near the historic Stonewall Inn as the Manhattan Pride March was wrapping up, police said Tuesday.
The 17-year-old suspect was nabbed Monday on Staten Island and charged with attempted murder, assault and gun possession.
The shocking violence the night of June 28 was sparked by tensions between rival groups from Brooklyn, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said a day after the shootings.
Gunfire erputed about 10:10 p.m. in Sheridan Square, just feet from the Stonewall National Monument and less than two blocks from the Stonewall Inn.
As jubilant celebrants flooded the area, two smaller groups in that crowd separated themselves from the pack, eyeing each other, Kenny said.
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.
Armed with a 9-mm. handgun, she “walks right up to him, places the gun within inches of his face, pulls the trigger twice” but somehow missed, Kenny said.
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 pierced that victim’s left thigh, 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 and expected to recover.
As scores of people ran for cover, the shooter and her friends ran off but moments later the 17-year-old boy, who was part of that group, turned and fired toward the rival group, according to cops. He let off four rounds, one of them unintentionally striking the 16-year-old shooter in the head, police say.
“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, Kenny said.
The teen’s arraignment was pending in Manhattan Criminal Court Tuesday.
