(Photos: Daniel Maurer)
Two teenagers were shot near an East Williamsburg high school this afternoon.
A 17-year-old man was shot in the forearm and a 14-year-old woman was shot in the left leg around 2:45 p.m. outside of the Crown Grill & Salad at 802 Grand Street, the police said. Both were taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition.
An NYPD spokesperson was unable to describe a suspect, but locals say they saw teenagers fleeing down Grand Street, the neighborhood’s busy commercial strip. Between Bushwick Avenue and Humboldt Street, across from where authorities say the initial shots were fired, Bravo Supermarket’s front window was shattered by a stray bullet, a deli worker said.
Vitaly Sherman, owner of Masha & the Bear, said he was preparing for his new Russian restaurant’s first night of business when the shots rang out and a pair of women ran into the eatery for shelter. One was so panicked she was still holding the cigarette she had been smoking on the sidewalk. “I saw a bunch of kids with baseball bats, running that way,” Sherman said, pointing west toward Manhattan Avenue. “It looked like a gang running.”
The incident happened a half block from the Progress High School for Professional Careers. Police briefly closed a subway entrance next to the school following the shooting, which remains under investigation.
Update: A police source tells the Daily News that up to five shots were fired by a gunman who is thought to be around 15 years old. A food vendor tells the Times that a group of about 15 youths were fighting before the gunfire rang out. That outlet and CBS New York report that police took over a building on Throop Avenue but didn’t make an arrest there.