Police are looking for a suspect believed to be responsible for shooting a 14-year-old girl in the leg Friday afternoon as she was walking home from school.
Surveillance tape images captured a man, shown above, running through a gas station in East New York and firing three to four shots in the direction of the girl. The suspect then ran off, police said.
The girl's parents told reporters Friday night that their daughter was waiting for the light to change to cross the street when she suddenly felt a pain in her leg and realized she'd been shot.
The bullet had hit the girl just above the knee. She did not see a shooter or witness any altercation before the shot was fired, her parents said.
The girl's injuries were described as not life-threatening.
"I didn't expect this, but thank God she's OK," said the girl's mother, Charisse Tucker.
The victim is a straight-A student at Benjamin Banneker School, where she is a freshman, according to her parents. The girl loves to draw and wants to design clothes, they said.
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The family did not want their daughter identified out of fear of retaliation.
Community advocate Tony Herbert joined the girl's parents in expressing anger.
"Again, another gun goes off in our community and another child in our community is shot because of some stupidity, someone who wants a pistol in their hand for a sense of power," Herbert said.
