12-Year-Old Girl Wounded In Bronx Double Shooting
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police are searching the suspects behind a shooting that injured two people, including a 12-year-old girl, in the Bronx.
The shooting happened just before 6 p.m. Saturday on Wythe Place in the Mount Eden section.
"When the guy started shooting, a little hit my tee shirt, and then hit the little girl," said witness Evi Wynns.
Wynns felt a bullet whiz by as he chatted with friends.
The NYPD released surveillance video of men they want to find, suspected of targeting a Bronx man and injuring a 12-year-old Trenton, N.J. girl in the process.
Evelyn Mercado calls the situation on the streets "crazy." She was hosting the girl and her father for the weekend. They were outside 14-17 Wythe Place enjoying takeout hamburgers when a gunman opened fire at a man walking by.
A police surveillance camera recorded images of the men police are seeking. Witnesses told CBS2's Tony Aiello they believe a man in a white tee shirt was the actual gunman.
John Jose Mena, 25, was shot in the chest and hospitalized. Flying debris struck Mercado on the arm. A bullet fragment hit the 12-year-old girl in the leg - she will make a full recovery.
"Thank goodness she's alive. But still she has to go through the trauma, to need to go to the hospital," said community activist Rev. Oswald Denis.
Denis says more must be done to get guns off the street, and to change the mindset that says it's OK to settle disputes with violence that puts innocents at risk.
"I call upon the brothers out there to put down the guns. We're fed up. No more guns in our neighborhoods," Denis said.
The Saturday gunfire happened just steps from the busy 170th Street shopping district. Shooting incidents are up 200% in the 44th precinct versus last year.
Residents fear things will get worse before they get better.
Anyone with information about the suspects is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). You can also submit a tip via their website or on Twitter, @NYPDTips. All calls are kept confidential.
