Mayor Bloomberg on Monday said he spoke with the father of an 11-year-old girl who is paralyzed from the neck down after she was hit by a stray bullet outside her Brooklyn home Friday.
"You have the right to live in Bed-Stuy and not have bullets whiz past your head, that is a civil right," Bloomberg told reporters. "And the right to walk safely on any street in our city, that's a civil right."
Mazyck was one of 26 people shot in 22 shootings during the 72-hour period beginning Friday, police said. Seven people were killed, three in Brooklyn, two in the Bronx, one in Queens and one in Manhattan.
The mayor said he promised Tayloni Mazyck's father that he would not let up his campaign to "get guns out of the hands of minors and people with criminal records and have background checks on the sale of guns."
A 17-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with the shooting.
Mazyck was waiting for her aunt outside her Bedford-Stuyvesant home around 8:30 p.m. when a gunman walking down the street opened fire at two men standing outside of another residence, police said.
A stray bullet pierced Mazyck's throat, ricocheting down her spine before lodging in her back, the girl's father says doctors told him.
Mazyck's father said she underwent surgery at a hospital Friday night, but the bullet remains in her back.
The teenage suspect was arraigned Sunday on charges of attempted murder, assault, criminal use of a firearm and reckless endangerment. He remains in jail until his next court date on June 5.
