A 79-year-old woman was wounded when she was caught in the middle of a daytime shooting in the Bronx, an attack that also left a 26-year-old man injured. The gunfire erupted in the University Heights neighborhood, near a school, prompting police to cordon off two separate areas of West 183rd Street as they investigated.
According to police, the woman was shot in the leg as she was walking along West 183rd Street near University Avenue in the afternoon. Officers were seen helping her as she lay on the ground, and an eyewitness described her as an innocent bystander who simply happened to be in the wrong place when the shooting started.
The eyewitness said that moments before the woman was hit, a 26-year-old man had been sitting outside a building at 103 West 183rd Street. Two men approached him and shot him in the leg, an attack the witness said unfolded in the blink of an eye, far too fast for anyone nearby to react.
The same witness said the wounded man then tried to fire back at his attackers. Most of the bullet casings ended up scattered on the sidewalk, and police say it was a stray bullet from the exchange that struck the elderly woman in her leg as she walked along the street.
Both victims were rushed to a hospital, where they were listed in stable condition. The fact that the gunfire broke out in the middle of the day, on a residential street near a school, added to the alarm among people who live and work in the area.
Witnesses described a heartbreaking scene in University Heights, with one bystander expressing dismay at the sight of the wounded woman on the ground and blood at the scene. Police laid down crime scene tape within moments of the shooting as detectives began trying to piece together exactly what had happened.
At this time, police say they have been unable to confirm the full details surrounding the shooting, and no arrests have been made. Investigators remained in University Heights gathering evidence, and the case was being treated as an active and ongoing investigation.