A 17-year-old boy was shot outside a Bronx housing building Thursday night, presumably by a Citi Bike rider, hours after two other youths his age were injured by gunfire in the borough, police said.
The adolescent was shot in the hip while walking on the grounds of NYCHA’s Forest Houses on Trinity Avenue near East 165th Street in Longwood shortly before 10 p.m., according to police.
He was transferred to Harlem Hospital and was listed in stable condition.
The suspect escaped southbound on Trinity Avenue, likely on a Citi Bike, police said.
The fighting occurred many hours after two 17-year-old males, both of whom appeared to be innocent bystanders, were shot and wounded at 1:20 p.m. at East 176th Street and Anthony Avenue in the Mount Hope neighbourhood, according to police.
According to police and sources, one of the teenagers was shot in the right arm and another in the neck.
According to first reports, neither youngster appeared to be the shooter’s original target, but were hit in the crossfire.
Both were rushed to Columbia University Irving Medical Centre and were classified in stable condition, according to police.
According to authorities, neither victim has a criminal background and was shot from a distance.
The 37-year-old mother of the youngster who was struck in the arm, who declined to be identified, told The Post on Friday that the violence has left her “nerve-wrecked”.
“I’m grateful my son came home, I’m grateful my son is alive, he is functioning, no brain damage, he can walk, he can talk, he can still wipe his own butt,” she told me. “We consider ourselves to be blessed.
“I don’t think he or his associates have any enemies around here. It’s not like there was a fight or an altercation taking place.”
The still-shocked mother has stated that she intends to keep her son secure at home.
“From the looks of things, it doesn’t seem like he is going to be outside,” she told me. “I feel like he is safer inside.”
The worrisome violence comes just days after NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch stated that youth violence had surged in the Big Apple, blaming the state’s disputed “Raise the Age” bill.
