An innocent 12-year-old boy was murdered and a 20-year-old female relative was wounded in a shooting in Brooklyn Thursday night after the victims had stopped for food.
Around 7:45 p.m., gunshots were heard near East 56th Street and Linden Boulevard in East Flatbush, as the two victims and an 8-year-old girl were seated in a vehicle.
According to police, the two children spent the entire day at their grandmother’s beauty salon, and the female relative driving them home ended up stopping at Boston Market for dinner.
Detectives now presume the suspect vehicle rode up, and the shooter got out of a vehicle and began firing, firing up to 12 rounds in the direction of the victim’s vehicle.
The gunfire struck both the 12-year-old boy and the 20-year-old woman, and the boy was shot in the head and declared dead at the scene.
The woman was shot 3 times before being taken to a local hospital, where she required surgery and is expected to recover.
The 8-year-old girl was unharmed. She stated to police that she was snacking and staring at her phone at the time.
Brooklyn community mourns loss of 12-year-old boy fatally shot while sitting in parked car
According to detectives, surveillance video shows the suspect’s vehicle circled the block 3 times before the shooting took place, and they suspect the victims’ car was the intended to target – most likely due to mistaken identity.
Because the car is a prevalent type of vehicle with tinted windows, the perpetrators may not have realized there were kids inside.
The suspect’s car had stolen out-of-state license plates, and authorities will likely release video surveillance of it in the days ahead.
There has been no word on a possible motive for the shooting.
