Just weeks before Mother’s Day, Tricia Croal got a phone call no mom wants to get: her son had been shot.
Croal’s 12-year-old boy, Isaiah Osborne, was in Story Playground late Friday afternoon when he was hit by a bullet.
Isaiah had been playing basketball with a group of kids when at least one shot was fired. All of the other children dropped except Isaiah, who was hit by a bullet as he ran away. The bullet ruptured his intestines and arteries, his visibly distraught mother said.
"Who gets a phone call saying your son got shot," Croal said through tears. "I ran so much, I ran."
Croal says she was so frantic that she bolted to the park, in the Bronx’s Soundview neighborhood, in her bare feet.
“When I saw him, I said, ‘Baby, I told you not to go to the park,’” Croal said.
Isaiah was taken to Jacobi Medical Center, and doctors say he will survive his injuries.
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The shooting happened minutes before after-school students were released from a nearby elementary school.
Danny Barbara, a parent, called the shooting ridiculous.
“It’s a sunny day, and all that happening makes you not want to come out here,” Barbara said.
Croal says everyone is worried about snitching and won’t say anything to police. She says she has forwarded a couple of leads to police and hopes the gunman will be caught soon.
“I don't worry about no damn snitching,” Croal said. “I'm worried about protecting these kids in the neighborhood.”
Her words for the person who shot her son are clear.
“You’re a coward,” she said. “Only a coward shoots at kids in the first place. This is innocent kids playing basketball.”
