90-Year-Old Woman Shot on Way to Brooklyn Laundromat

A 90-year-old woman was shot on a Brooklyn street while she was running errands Wednesday evening, authorities and neighbors said. 

The elderly victim was pushing her cart to a laundromat near the corner of Blake and Miller avenues in East New York when she was struck in the arm by two stray bullets witnesses believed were meant for someone else. A nearby bodega worker rushed out and found the woman, identified by neighbors as Gloria Johnson. 

"We went outside, there was nobody there," said Stef Ali. "She was laying on the ground. We didn't know she was bleeding until we picked her up."

Johnson was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where she is in serious but stable condition.

The grandmother has lived in the community for many years and is well-known and liked, residents say. At the Pilgrim Union Church down the block, congregants said Johnson was like a mother there, "a good citizen" and that "everybody loves her."

Mike Bernard, who owns the laundromat where Johnson was going, said, "She come in here, gets her little coffee, her little cake." 

"She's somebody I laugh and talk with," he said. 

Bernard, who was once shot in an attempted robbery at his business, said the shooting reminded him how rough the neighborhood could be.

"When a customer of yours gets shot at her age, it worries you," he said.  

At the Pilgrim Union Church, neighbors prayed for Johnson's recovery and hoped for a better year ahead. 

"We're praying for the community and we hope it will be a good change this year," said one church member. "It has been rough in this neighborhood."  

Police were pulling surveillance video from a camera near the scene Wednesday and are continuing to investigate. 

Contact Us