BROWNSVILLE, Brooklyn (WABC) — A 9-year-old boy was sitting on a stoop when he was caught in apparent crossfire in Brooklyn. Police now say they are searching for three people in the shooting.
Someone in a group of young men opened fire on Bristol Street in Brownsville, hitting the boy in the leg on Thursday evening.
Police say he was not the intended target.
“For this 9-year-old boy, that I know that plays with my kids, it’s very sad. And now I’m afraid for my kid’s lives,” said a neighbor named Esmeralda.
This neighbor says she had just come inside after seeing the large group of young men on Bristol Street at around 5:45 p.m.
“They were just only walking up the block but I kind of had a feeling something was going to happen,” she said.
Esmeralda said there were no people fighting, no chaos and no arguments.
Then two or three gunshots rang out, and the young people scattered.
The boy was taken to Brookdale Hospital with a wounded right leg.
His Aunt Kim was rushing there and told Eyewitness News that the boy was walking up to her building to invite her son, his cousin, outside to play.
“A nice little boy. From the community. He don’t do nothing. He just came to come outside to play,” the victim’s aunt said.
She says he will be OK, but her family is shaken up.
No arrests have been made and no gun was recovered
Three young men are being sought; one wearing a light blue sweatsuit, one wearing a dark blue sweatsuit, and a third in all black.
As police look for the shooter, Kim had a message for that person.
“Y’all have to stop, cause we all have to live here,” she said.
Neighbors told Eyewitness News that those who do live in the Marcus Garvey apartment community, say it usually is safe for kids to be just outside.
Police are going through video from the many cameras on the block to figure out exactly who brought a gun here, pulled the trigger and put so many lives in danger on a sunny and mild late afternoon.
The child was shot just six blocks away from the 73rd Precinct, where NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch held a news conference hours just after noon on Thursday, announcing the seizure of 1,000 firearms since the start of the year.
———-
* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts
* Download our connected TV app
Submit a tip or story idea to Eyewitness News
Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply.
Copyright © 2026 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.