Police Name Suspect In 13-Year-Old's Stray Bullet Shooting, Reward Offered

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - It's been a little more than a week since the 13-year-old girl was shot while sitting on a bench at Saint Andrew's playground in Bed-Stuy.

Police are looking to question 19-year-old Ahziem Walter, reports CBS2's Jenna DeAngelis.

Investigators believe Walter is responsible for the stray bullet shooting that happened at this playground last week who is actually out on bail after being arrested on an assault charge back in June.

Police believe he fired the gun at Saint Andrew's playground on July 24 that resulted in a 13-year-old girl getting rushed to the hospital.

According to authorities, the girl was sitting on a park bench when she was shot in the shoulder.

Witnesses tell CBS2 the playground was filled with kids and the victim tried to run away. He only made it to the sidewalk at Saint Andrews Place and Herkimer Street where she waited for an ambulance.

At that point, the shooter ran off.

A reward of $2,500 is being offered in exchange for information leading to his arrest.

Since June, there have been at least 14 incidents across the city where innocent bystanders have been hit by stray bullets - many, like this case, involving children.

• June 4 – A 15-year-old girl was shot in thigh while sitting on a bench on a basketball court in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
• June 5 – A seven-year-old Bronx boy was shot in the leg while walking home from school with his grandmother.
• June 5 – Two elderly women were shot while sitting in their Queens home.
• June 7 – An East Harlem woman was shot in arm at 102nd Street and Madison Ave.
• June 10 – A man is shot and killed while his walking dog in Hamilton Heights.
• June 12 – A Bronx woman was shot in the arm while walking to work on Williamsbridge Road.
• June 20 - An 11-year-old boy and 31-year-old man were shot on a sidewalk in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The boy could be paralyzed.
• June 21 - A man, 20, was shot in the neck while sitting in a car in East New York, Brooklyn.
• June 23 - Two men and a woman were shot in the Bronx. At least one was an innocent bystander.
• July 13 - A woman, 76, was grazed in the neck while sitting in a car in Queens.
• July 13 - A woman, 67, was shot in the leg inside the lobby of the George Washington Houses in East Harlem.
• July 21 - An 11-year-old boy was shot in the leg outside an East Harlem deli.
• July 24 - A 13-year-old girl was shot in the shoulder while sitting on a playground bench in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.
• July 24 - A 51-year-old man is shot while playing dominoes after two gunmen open fire in the Bronx.

Anyone with information is asked to call NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or 1-888-57-PISTA (74782) for Spanish. You can also submit a tip via the Crime Stoppers website, by Tweeting @NYPDTips or by texting a tip to 274637 (CRIMES) and then entering TIP577.

In:
• Brooklyn
• Bedford-Stuyvesant
• Bed-Stuy
• New York