Brooklyn Man Sentenced To 17 Years For Stray-Bullet Shooting That Left Girl Paralyzed
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Brooklyn man was sentenced to 17 years in prison Monday for a stray-bullet shooting that left a child paralyzed.
At just 13 years old, Tayloni Mazyck is confined to a wheelchair. She and her family were face to face Monday with the man who put her there -- 19-year-old Kane Cooper.
"It really was kind of hard, because now I'm really putting a picture to the person that did this to my daughter," Pricilla Samuel, Tayloni's mother, told CBS2's Hazel Sanchez.
Cooper was sentenced for shooting Tayloni in the neck during a 2013 gang-related shooting in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Tayloni, an innocent bystander, was struck in the spine and left paralyzed from the waist down.
The shy teenager broke down after seeing Cooper in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
"As a child looking at this guy, it's kind of like he's a type of monster," Samuel said. "So now she's upfront and personal with him, so she couldn't bring herself to say her words."
Tayloni's older brother, Daiquan, read her victim impact statement before the judge and then again for CBS2.
"I have known pain and endured more pain in my short life than most," she wrote. " ... I can't even run track, play double Dutch or even swim. You need to walk to do all those things. Thanks a lot for nothing."
Cooper appeared very smug in court, shaking his head during the victim's statement and at times looking at people in the courtroom with a grin on his face.
The judge asked him if he had anything to say to the victim's family. He quickly responded "no."
"This guy wasn't showing like he was sorry for anything," Samuel said. "And I kind of felt like I wanted to scratch his eyes out."
"Whatever happens to him, he deserves it, because there's no reason for gun violence," Daiquan said.
Her family said it pains them to see her unable to stand on two feet while knowing one day Cooper will walk out of prison.