Woman, 74, in critical condition after being shot while sitting on bench in Brooklyn
Five people were injured in two separate shootings in Brookyln on Sunday night, police said
A 74-year-old woman who was sitting on a bench outside a Brooklyn housing complex was shot in the stomach, authorities say.
At around 6.36pm on Sunday, the New York Police Department’s 73rd Precinct received a call about a woman, who has not been identified, in East New York who had been shot in the stomach.
According to the New York Daily News, officers said that the 74-year-old had heard a shot fired and hadn’t realised she’d been struck until she felt a sudden pain in her abdomen.
The victim was reportedly rushed to Brookdale Hospital where she remains as of Monday morning and is being treated for critical injuries.
The unprovoked incident in the Brooklyn neighbourhood occurred shortly before a separate shooting in Brownsville, approximately two miles west of where the 74-year-old was hit by a stray bullet in East New York.
At around 8.10pm, officers from the 75th Precinct responded to a call about a mass shooting that had left four males injured, which included a 16-year-old boy.
Authorities said they believe the shooting happened after the gunman had become involved in a verbal argument with one of the males where the altercation occurred, at the corner of Livonia and Rockaway Avenues.
After gunfire erupted outside a restaurant, the suspect reportedly fled on foot in an unknown direction and remains at large, according to AM New York.
The teenage boy, who officers say was found with a bullet wound to the head, was rushed by ambulance to Maimonides Medical Center where he was treated with life-threatening-injuries and remains in critical condition.
Two of the men, 24 and 59, who were injured in the shooting were taken to Brookdale University Hospital for treatment, while the third man, 34, suffered a graze wound and refused medical attention, according to law enforcement.
The shootings on Sunday arrive as the city is reeling from an uptick in gun violence in recent months.
In the first quarter of this year compared with the same time period last year, shooting incidents increased from 260 to 296, according to data released by the NYPD statistics department in April.
Overall crime has also seen a rise since May 2021, with the department noting that there’s been a 27.8 per cent since then and the end of May of this year.
New York state has experienced in just the last few months some of the year’s most violent and mass shootings, including an attack at a subway station in Brooklyn that left 10 people injured and sent hundreds more fleeing for their lives, and a while a racially motivated attack in Buffalo at a grocery store where a white supremacist shot and killed 10 individuals.
Last month, in a move that was heavily criticised by lawmakers and gun reform advocates alike, the Supreme Court overturned a New York state law that placed restrictions on carrying concealed guns outside the home, a reversal that effectively expanded private citizens’ rights to carry firearms.