NEW YORK: Six people were shot at a New York City convenience store Monday, including a 12-year-old girl and her mother, as one of the intended targets used the woman as a shield, police said.
The mother ended up shot in the stomach while the person who grabbed her went unscathed, police interim Chief of Department John Chell said.
There was no immediate information on the condition of those wounded in what Chell called “a brazen and heartless attack on innocent New Yorkers and cowardly intended victims.”
Police believe the two shooters were aiming for people in a group standing outside the store on White Plains Road, a commercial thoroughfare in the Bronx.
Chell said police have video showing the attackers opened fire around 5 p.m. as they ran across the road to the store, then kept shooting as their targets ran into the store.
After bumping into the woman and girl at the counter, one of the people who ran inside took hold of her and spun her into the line of fire, Chell said.
Chell said all of those shot, except the 40-year-old mother, were wounded in their arms or legs. The Fire Department said it took five of the wounded to hospitals, and the sixth apparently got a ride to a hospital from someone else.
In addition to the mother and daughter, those wounded included four men, aged 18 to 21, Chell said.
Investigators haven’t yet made any arrests or determined a motive for the gunfire.