An 8-year-old boy was wounded in a shooting incident in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx on Tuesday, as per local law enforcement reports. The boy’s mother, who wished to remain unidentified, shared the harrowing details of the event with the media outside the hospital where her son was receiving treatment. She narrated how her son was disembarking from his school bus on Beekman Avenue around 5 p.m. when gunfire erupted nearby. A bullet hit the boy’s thigh as his grandmother pushed him to the ground in an attempt to protect him.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing family members quickly lift the boy into a car and speed off to the emergency room. In the meantime, police officers who responded to the incident chased and apprehended two suspects. The officers also recovered a firearm from the scene of the shooting.
One of the suspects, a 27-year-old man identified as Joshua Brooks, has been charged with attempted murder, assault, assault on a minor under 11 years old, reckless endangerment, and illegal possession of a firearm. The second suspect has not yet been charged.
Mona Davids, a local advocate for school safety, voiced her concerns about the safety of children in the area. She urged the mayor to bolster police presence on the streets to prevent such incidents from recurring. “The fact our kids are being shot returning home from school… this is something that terrifies parents,” she expressed.
The boy’s mother assured the public that her son was out of danger, stating that the bullet had narrowly missed a vital artery. However, the incident has left the community in a state of shock, with neighbors expressing fear for the future. “If we’re not losing them to the drugs we’re losing them to the bullets,” a distraught neighbor, Alejandria Rioso, lamented.