Man Shot, Wounded In East Harlem; Bullet Also Strikes MTA Bus
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A man was shot and wounded in East Harlem late Monday afternoon, and a bullet also struck a passing city bus.
Around 5:20 p.m., the 21-year-old man -- identified as Kisneef Queen -- was walking along Madison Avenue between 103rd and 104th streets when a group of other men opened fire from the street, police said.
Queen was hit once in the left foot, police said. It was unclear whether he was the target.
He was taken to NewYork Presbyterian-Columbia University Medical Center, officials told 1010 WINS.
A bullet from the shooting also hit an M3 bus on a right side window. No passengers were struck, police said.
"The bus driver pulled out of 102nd Street, and as he pulled out, we heard a lot of noise," said Barbara Hines.
The noise Hines heard as she sat on the bus was indeed gunfire.
"There was complete chaos. The driver stayed calm, of course, and drove the bus to the next bus stop, but people began to scream and fall," Hines said.
Hines, who uses a motorized scooter, was sitting in the handicap section in the front of the bus. She said she was in the direct line of fire.
"Had the bullet penetrated, it would have hit me in the head," she said.
About 30 people were on board the bus at the time. One woman was taken away by ambulance after hurting her knee when she dropped to the ground as bullets started flying.
Hines was just thankful no one was hit.
"It was not my time, and it was not anybody's time, because no one on the bus was hurt," she said.
The bus driver appeared shaken and unnerved by the shooting.
As to whether he was OK, he said, "Don't know yet."
As WCBS 880's Marla Diamond reported, the rush-hour shooting had many people in the neighborhood shaken.
"I take this almost twice a week when I come from my work," one man said. "It makes me scared, because this is the first time it's happening."
But residents in the neighborhood said such shootings are not uncommon.
"Of course it's sad," one woman said. "People getting hit by bullets by mistake or on purpose."
The gunman fled into a nearby public housing development, Diamond reported. No one was in custody in the incident early Monday evening.