'I Saw My Daddy On The Floor:' Daughter Of Bystander Struck By Stray Bullet In Brooklyn Speaks Exclusively To CBS2
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The family of a Brooklyn man fears he may never walk again after he was hit by a stray bullet when gunfire erupted outside his home Wednesday night.
Franklin Cedano, 59, was moving a refrigerator out of his apartment on Tompkins Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant moments before he went down just before 8 p.m.
Police sources say around the same time the gunman was seen putting a woman in a headlock and dragging her across the street. Investigators said at some point, the man began arguing with another man and then pulled out a gun, firing near the intersection of Stockton Street and Tompkins.
"It was about three shots and then I heard the cops run by and then this whole block got full of people," one witness said.
One of the bullets hit Cedano in the chest.
Cedano was rushed to the hospital in critical condition after he collapsed in front of his daughter, 1-year-old granddaughter and his wife.
"I was standing right there with my daughter when it happened," the victim's daughter, Kassandra Cedano, said in an exclusive interview with CBS2's Janelle Burrell. "I was going to the store to get my daughter milk. Those two people came, they were arguing. He was standing right there and when I saw that, he took out a gun, I moved back because I was standing right there with my daughter, and then when I came back I saw my daddy on the floor."
Cedano's family learned his surgery scheduled for Thursday has been canceled.
"They're not gonna do it because he's not gonna walk," his daughter said.
Cedano's family said he is conscious but in pain and that he may be paralyzed. They're now praying for his recovery and that the shooter is caught.
Another bullet ripped through a nearby second-floor apartment window.
No one inside the apartment was hurt.
Neighbors are on edge.
"It's very upsetting, it's scary too. I live here and this kind of stuff goes on every day," one man said.
The gunman was believed to have been last seen running into 77 Tompkins Avenue, a building located across from where Cedano was shot.
Police have released surveillance video and images of the suspect.
Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
All calls are strictly confidential.