Sources: 18-Year-Old Shot Dead While Walking With Sister In Yonkers Was Not Intended Target
YONKERS, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – An 18-year-old was shot dead while walking with her 5-year-old sister to get pizza Thursday night in Yonkers, sources tell CBS2.
Sources say the teen was not the intended target.
The victim was identified as Marilyn Cotto Montanez.
She was a student at Lincoln High School in Yonkers.
She was killed by a gunshot to her head Thursday night, while it was still light out.
Police responded around 6:30 p.m. to reports of shots fired at Lake and Morningside avenues. Two groups of men were arguing in the area when one allegedly pulled out a gun and fired at least one shot.
Surveillance video from a beauty salon on Lake Avenue shows a man crossing the Morningside intersection. Then he spots men in a dark colored in a sedan who got out of the vehicle and chase him around the corner where a gunshot was heard.
Right away, they run back, one getting in the car, and the other continuing on foot.
The younger sister of Montanez can be seen on the video trying to get help from people on Lake Avenue.
Family members say all the victim and her younger sister wanted at the time was to get some pizza. They were only half a block away from home.
"She was coming up the street with her sister, her little sister, and then she was unlucky, just to be in the wroong place at the wrong time," said Yonkers resident Rosalba Rodriguez.
"We do not believe she was the intended target," said Det. Sgt. Dean Politopoulos of the Yonkers Police Department.
Police confirm they are questioning at least one person of interest, but did not elaborate.
Friday evening, then 18-year-old victim's classmates and relatives were at the crime scene with candles.
"It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. And I feel I have to share some respect, because I can't imagine going through what the little sister is going through. We just have to stop this violence," said Yonkers resident Katelyn Sung.
"She was a good girl. She was a good girl. I know her mother is just very sad," Rodriguez said.
A crisis intervention team including grief counselors went to Lincoln High School. In a statement, the school superintendent called what happened to the 11th grader a "senseless act of violence," adding "we cannot lose another child to gun violence."
"My kids tell me, 'Mom, there was somebody that just got shot. And I was trying to rush to them, because they had just literately got home from school at that time," said Yonkers resident Sylvia Courtade. "Very scary."
"I don't even feel safe walking out of my house," said Sung. "It was right after school. I don't understand why people need to bring out gun violence on young, innocent people."