A 9-year-old boy was shot in the foot as he was walking home with his cousins near a park in the Bronx Wednesday afternoon, police and family say.
The boy had just left school and was headed home by Crotona Park in Tremont, according to his cousin Michael Harrison. Harrison, his siblings and the boy first stopped at a nearby store, and as they walked out, gunshots were fired.
"I came out the store, I had my back turned. By the time I turned around, there was two shots and my cousin was on the floor," said Harrison. "He said "I'm shot, I'm shot.'"
Others said they heard as many as five loud bangs fired at the corner of East 175th Street and Prospect Avenue. One bullet pierced the young boy's foot.
"It was scary, everyone was looking around, people were running because there were kids coming out of school," said a parent who was nearby. "I got scared and my daughter was terrified."
Harrison rushed his young cousin home, where an ambulance was called. The boy was taken to the hospital in stable condition and was expected to be released from the emergency room.
The boy's aunt told NBC 4 New York Wednesday night he was shaken up but doing "much better."
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Police searched the shooting scene for shell casings and other evidence. They are searching for the gunman, who they say fled in an early model white Chevy Impala.
"It doesn't make any sense that we have to come from school and that happens -- just coming from school, you know what I mean? He didn't deserve it at all," said Harrison.
