Brooklyn shooting kills 12-year-old boy eating in parked car

April 1, 2022 Associated Press

A NYPD car. Photo: Julio Cortez/AP File

Share this:

A 12-year-old boy was killed by gunfire as he was eating in a parked car in Brooklyn with two family members, one of whom was shot and wounded, NYPD officials said Thursday.

Assistant Chief Michael Kemper said the boy was shot multiple times and pronounced dead at the scene.

“The three pulled over in the car to eat some food when shots were fired that penetrated their vehicle,” Kemper said.

He said investigators didn’t yet have a motive for the shooting, and didn’t know if the vehicle was targeted.

A 20-year-old woman in the drivers’ seat was taken to the hospital and was expected to recover following surgery, while an 8-year-old girl in the back seat was unhurt.

Kemper, flanked by New York City Mayor Eric Adams, spoke to reporters amid intermittent rain late Thursday at the scene of the shooting in Brooklyn’s East Flatbush neighborhood.

Adams, a former New York City police captain, stressed the importance of getting guns off the streets.

“When are we going to start fighting for the innocent people of this city?” Adams said. “We’re going to catch this shooter — but as long as we have guns and a revolving door system, we’re going to continue to come to crime scenes like this. It’s time for it to stop.”

The nation’s most populous city has confronted a series of high-profile crimes this year, including the deaths of two police officers, a deadly subway shove under Times Square, a stray-bullet shooting of a baby and a deadly robbery at a fast-food restaurant.

After hitting record lows, killings have risen in recent years to about where they were a decade ago — well below an early-1990s peak. The number of people wounded by gunfire surged in New York City during the pandemic and remains stubbornly high.

Adams said Brooklyn’s 67th Police Precinct, which covers the area where the shooting took place, “removed close to 48 guns off these streets, over 100 guns last year.”

This year, through March 27, there have been five murders in the precinct, compared with two at the same time last year. There were also 12 shooting victims this year; up from five at the same time last year.