New York

3 Hit With Bullets in 2 Separate Shootings on One Brooklyn Block: Cops

Three people were shot in two separate shootings on one Brooklyn block Wednesday, police say, and a woman selling jewelry narrowly avoided becoming a shooting victim herself after the bullets went flying. 

Just before 3 p.m., police received reports that two people had been shot on Pitkin Avenue in East New York.

The shooter critically injured a 16-year-old boy with a gunshot wound to the neck. Cops believe he was the intended target.

The shooter also hit a 45-year-old woman as she ran away from the gunfire. She remains in serious but stable condition, according to police.

Cops are still investigating whether she was an innocent bystander or involved in the dispute leading up to the incident.

The woman selling jewelry, Andrajennique Griffin, was at a table just a block away from the shooting when she barely escaped taking a bullet.

“I heard about seven shots, but I got down about the second and third shot,” Griffin said. “I just heard God tell me, 'get down dummy.'”

Instead of hitting her, the bullet went through a box then Griffin’s table, landing on the sidewalk next to her feet.

“I must have heard it hit the table—it broke the table,” she said. “There may be a piece of bullet in there as far as I know.”

The shooting occurred around the same time as another shooting happened around the corner on Mother Gaston Boulevard and Pitkin Avenue, according to police. A 27-year-old man was shot in the groin and hospitalized in serious but stable condition, police said. 

Police do not believe the two shootings were related.

Though shaken, Griffin prays the violence in East New York will subside. 

“I’m just hoping they learn to talk to each other with love,” she said.

The first shooting was caught on surveillance video and police scoured the area after the shootings, but they have not identified suspects. The investigation is ongoing. 

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