Gang members who fired multiple shots at a young man walking along a Brooklyn street on Saturday afternoon narrowly avoided causing an even greater tragedy, police reported.
Law enforcement sources said a 19-year-old man was walking on the sidewalk on Kings Highway and East 40th Street in Flatlands at about 3:45 p.m. when several people a vehicle traveling east began firing shots at him, hitting him in the ankle.
But the bullets also flew through the windows of a young Sudanese immigrant family’s home, as well as nearby car windows and other objects.
“I heard the bullet come through the window and it ended up on the floor in the hallway,” said Yasmin Sideld, a Sudanese immigrant who was with her 2-year-old son Yosef, and 4-year-old Salma.
All of them narrowly escaped physical harm — yet there was a visible reminder in their home of just how lucky they were not to have been hit.
“It was crazy, we were terrified,” Sideld added. “We could’ve been hit, I was going in the kitchen only a few minutes before to get some food. There is a bullet now in my wall.”
Cops said the intended target ran from his attackers, with one of the shooters apparently exiting a vehicle and following him up 40th Street towards Hubbard Street. The victim ended his flight on Avenue K, where officers from the 63rd Precinct found him sprawled on the ground — a blue and black bandanna tossed a few feet away.
Another man was seen jumping a fence and entering the rear of a Day Care Center, Sister’s Circle Nursery at 4018 Avenue K, prompting a search by heavily armed Emergency Service Police Officers.
The teenager was rushed by EMS to Kings County Hospital where he was reported in stable condition.
Spent shells were scattered in the eastbound lanes of Kings Highway after the shooting, though police did not have a description of the assailant vehicle. Police found that two bullets entered a home directly across the street, four bullets hit a car window, another struck a car door and the last hit a tree.
Hallah Natan, cousin of Sidel, said she was in the living room drinking tea when the bullet crashed through the window.
“I’m a scared – the the bullet comes in like that and if I were standing there, it would’ve got me. The bullet just dropped on the ground. It was so very scary,” said Natan, who’s car was also hit by a bullet.
Abbas Elfidel, part of that Sudanese community on Kings Highway, said he was standing at his building close by when the shots rang out.
“I was standing in front of my building when I heard gunshots, pop, pop, pop,” said Elfidel who is a friend of Sidel. “We don’t know when we are going to die – but Mayor de Blasio has gotta do something.”
One resident who didn’t want to give his name said the area around Hubbard Street is “really bad.”
“We just had a shooting just a few days ago at Hubbard and East 40th Street – it’s getting ridiculous, ” he said.
On Sept. 17, police raided a home on Hubbard Street at East 40th Street where 12 people were taken into custody, including one man they say was responsible for firing a shot at another group they were fighting with in the street. Numerous guns were taken from the home and investigators say those taken into custody had gang affiliations.
This past week, a 43-year-old mother was shot to death in her Jackson Heights, Queens home when she went to look out the window. A man was arrested yesterday for that murder. A day later, a woman in the Bronx was shot in the leg when gang members began shooting each other in the street.
