A mother of five desperately ran for help into a Brooklyn nightclub after she was fatally shot in the back after a gunman fired into a crowd fighting outside early Sunday, cops said.
Sofronie Hartzog, 33, was shot in the back after the clash broke out on Bergen St. and Howard Ave. in Crown Heights, with someone opening fire into the group about 2:20 a.m., cops said. Hartzog doesn’t appear to have been the shooter’s intended target, police sources said.
About 100 people were gathered near Ooh La La Lounge and Bar when the shots rang out.
Hartzog ran wounded into the club before collapsing in the bathroom, police sources said.
“How do you tell five kids that is 10 and under that their mother is deceased?” said the victim’s aunt Amy Hartzog.
Another victim, a 34-year-old man, was shot in the stomach.
“It was just really rowdy,” said a 45-year-old woman who gave her name as Nicole who lives nearby. “I saw a lot of people.”
“Everyone is scattering, jumping in their cars … They were yelling for their people, like, ‘Come on, let’s go!'” she added.” And that’s when I heard a girl got shot … Right then and there, I started to pray: ‘Lord, please.'”
Medics rushed Sofronie to Brookdale University Hospital but she could not be saved. She lived in Gravesend, according to cops.
Neighbors in an apartment building in Flushing, Queens, where Sofronie’s relatives lives, and where Sofronie often visited, were shocked by her slaying.
“I’m upset, I’m sad. I just seen her,” said a 58-year-old neighbor who gave her name as only Crystal M, 58. “I’m so heartbroken. She’s a good mom. She was funny, lighthearted, friendly. We talk.”
“She always seemed happy,” she added. “I’m so sad to know that them kids are without a mother. I’m really heartbroken for the kids.”
The wounded man walked to Kings County Hospital and was in stable condition. “It’s traumatizing,” he said when reached by the Daily News hours later. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Police initially stopped two men who fit the description of persons of interest but then determined they weren’t involved and let them go, sources said.
Cops have made no arrests.