14-Year-Old Recovering After Point-Blank, Surprise Paintball Attack
PATERSON, N.J. (CBSNewYork) - A 14-year-old victim suffered more than a dozen welts all over his body after he was shot by someone with a paintball gun yesterday evening.
Police say the suspect was standing just feet away from Bryan Vasquez when he opened fire.
Yellow and white paint remains from along the stairs, the door and the sides of the boy's home, CBS2's Marc Liverman reported. Paintballs still can be found in the grass.
Bryan was shot as soon as he opened the door, and his entire body is covered in huge welts, with skin ripped open.
"He just started, shooting out of nowhere," said Bryan's mother Carolina Vasquez. "There's like 25 wounds, my son has."
The attack happened around 7 p.m. Monday at their home on 11th Avenue in Paterson.
"We're all under panic. We don't feel safe," Carolina Vasquez said.
Vasquez said her son was home with his grandmother when he heard a knock on the door. When Bryan went to open it, the gunman started firing.
"Over and over and over," she said.
The shots hit Bryan all over his body. His lower back, legs and arms were hit by dozens of paintballs.
The attack took just seconds, and when it was over, Carolina Vasquez says the shooter just calmly walked away.
"He left walking like nothing after he did this," Carolina Vasquez said.
The 14-year-old was rushed by ambulance to the hospital, where he spent the night. His wounds are so painful from the direct hits by the paintball gun, his mother says he could barely sleep.
"He was bleeding," his mother said. "You have to use a protector [to use a paintball gun], and it was raw."
Vasquez says Bryan recognized the shooter - an older brother of a boy he goes to school with. She just doesn't understand why anyone did this.
"It's upsetting. I don't want this to happen to any other kid," she said.
Liverman was there as Bryan met with detectives outside his home. So far, police haven't confirmed if anyone has been arrested.
"My mom, she's on medication, she's nervous. She's scared that he's going to come back again and do it worse, with a real gun," said Carolina Vasquez.
Luckily, Bryan was never hit in the face, but he was hit along his upper neck, just a few inches away from his eyes.