Add The New York Post on Google A 6-year-old boy whose dad was fatally shot before he was born took a bullet to the chest during a July 4 mass shooting on Coney Island — and can’t understand why someone would hurt him, his mom said Monday.
The child was one of eight people, including four youngsters, wounded when gunfire shattered an annual family cookout filled with kids that began with “nothing but good vibes,” according to cops and the young victim’s mother, Ineisha Greene, 27.
“My son just keeps saying that somebody shot him. But he’s only 6,” the Bronx mom told The Post by phone Monday.
Gun violence is tragically not new to the family: The wounded boy never got to meet his father, who was shot and killed in The Bronx while Greene was pregnant with the boy in 2019, she said.
Sunday’s violence in Brooklyn apparently stemmed from gang retaliation in the area, authorities have said.
While the child’s injuries were miraculously non-life-threatening, he is still recovering alongside his wounded uncle, 14 — and in an apparent state of shock, according to his mom.
“Right now, he is OK. He still has damage to his lungs – he has bruises in his lungs,” Greene said of her little boy.
“He has a hole in his chest and a hole on his side, on his wrist. He doesn’t want to eat much. They bring him food, I buy him food. He doesn’t want to eat, he’s not drinking anything. He’s up moving around.”
The senseless shooting came as friends and relatives gathered for the Independence Day gathering in a gated area on West 30th Street and Surf Avenue.
“Everybody was good still, music playing – fireworks still going on, kids around,” Greene said.
Then around 10:30 p.m., the celebrations devolved into chaos when a gunman opened fire from behind the gate, according to cops and Greene.
“[My son] came back with his plate, he came to sit down, and as he was sitting down, he just jumped up out of nowhere and was screaming like, ‘Ah, Ah!’ but he never once cried,” Greene said.
“So I thought that it was him getting hit with a firework … so I tried to grab him to come to me so I can see where he [got] hit.
“[But] when my uncle picked up my cousin, I saw that my cousin was leaking from his leg. I automatically knew that it was gunshots,” Greene said. “I grabbed my son and I ran… in the house with my daughter in the other arm, and when I got in the house, I lifted up my son’s shirt and saw that he had a gunshot to his chest.”
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters that the shooting may have been in retaliation for a fatal gang-related bullet spree on the same block earlier in the week.
There were no signs of an “argument or altercation” at the barbecue before the shots rang out, according to the top cop – which the wounded boy’s mom echoed.
“Every time we were around family, we had nothing but good vibes – no drama, no arguments,” Greene said, adding that her kids were “excited” for the yearly gathering.
“My brother said he doesn’t understand why somebody [would] do this to the family.”
Investigators recovered a Tec-9 style firearm with an extended magazine, along with 10 discharged shell casings, at the scene, according to Tisch.
“Once we see people start running and people start bleeding, then we knew that it was gunshots,” Greene said.
“So, whoever was shooting was shooting from outside the gate, they never came inside of the yard. So as they’re shooting… the bullets are bouncing off the gate, and it’s hitting different people.”
The 7- and 12-year-old boys also shot during the mayhem and recovering at other hospitals are Greene’s cousins, she said.
Also among the wounded was Greene’s 21-year-old cousin who was shot in the chest and left fighting for her life in a coma.
A 37-year-old man was also shot in the shoulder, a 33-year-old man struck in the chest, and a 25-year-old woman hit in the leg, cops said. They were expected to survive.
No arrests had been made in the holiday violence by Monday, police said.
“I hope they catch the person that did this, and the person that did this needs to be under the jail,” Greene said. “You almost took my son’s life, that is 6 years old. My cousin is in the hospital fighting for her life for somebody else’s dumb bulls–t that they got going on that had nothing to do with my family.”
“Why would you want to shoot into a crowd with nothing but kids? There’s more kids outside than anything.”
