A Brooklyn woman is lucky to be alive after she was caught in crossfire and struck by a stray bullet while taking out the trash at the NYCHA complex where she lives, her family says.
The 41-year-old mother of six was outside her building at NYCHA’s Pink Houses in East New York when she was shot in the stomach just before 2 a.m. Tuesday, cops said.
“She was there at the wrong place, wrong time,” the victim’s distraught daughter told the Daily News. “Walking out, taking out trash.”
Police confirm the woman was an innocent bystander when two rivals opened fire at each other on Linden Blvd. near Eldert Lane. She was the only one struck in the exchange of gunfire.
The victim, who works as a security guard at a homeless shelter, has lived at the Pink Houses for more than six years. She has five daughters, one son, and is a grandmother to a 1-year-old boy.
“She’s still shaken up from the fact that it even happened to her,” the daughter said. “She don’t know who did what, who was the person, nothing — how it went down.”
No arrests have been made. Cops are still looking for the two gunmen and were scouring the area for surveillance footage.
The daughter learned about the shooting about an hour later when one of her sisters called and said their mom was at Brookdale University Hospital.
“Something told me to answer and I answer hearing my mom got shot,” she recalled. “I woke my sister up in a panic. And we got dressed and we went straight to the hospital. They said we couldn’t see her right now until a couple hours.”
“I couldn’t cry at the moment because I was still processing,” she added. “But then when I really thought about it, started thinking about it, I just broke down.”
The woman’s daughter said her mom was in a great deal of pain after she was shot, but is now on the mend.
“She’s talking how she regularly is talking but, you know, she can’t really do too much, the daughter said.
The victim was released from the hospital late Tuesday, cops said.
“Me and my siblings, everyone’s here to comfort her at this moment,” the daughter daughter said. “I just feel crazy about the situation.”
The daughter hopes her mom will now be able to move.
“She needs to get out of those projects. This is crazy. I don’t like what’s going on in this environment,” the daughter said. “This should’ve been prevented. They’re doing all these crimes and we just need to know who it is and why they’re doing this at such a late time.”
“Gun violence has to be stopped,” she added.
Cops are asking anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
