An 87-year-old Bronx grandmother didn’t realize she’d been shot in the neck until a stranger told her and she saw blood running down her neck.
Three 16-year-old boys were arrested in connection with a shooting that injured the 87-year-old woman and an 18-year-old man
, according to police.
Around 3:49 p.m. Friday, stray bullets fired near Barnes Avenue in the Bronx struck the woman in the face and torso and the 18-year-old in the hip
.
The victim, Elticeal Grant, 87, of Wakefield, said she was simply walking through the neighborhood when gunfire erupted nearby.
Both victims were taken to local hospitals in stable condition
.
“I just go through this gate, and I was standing,” Grant told The Post Thursday from her home behind a metal gate. “Someone said to me ‘You’re bleeding, you get shot.”
Then, a bystander ran up to her with paper towels to help. “and start to sop up the blood, sop up the blood, sop of the blood,” she said, repeating the phrase for dramatic emphasis.
“I was bleeding so much,” Grant said. “That’s all I know.”
Grant didn’t remember seeing or hearing anyone firing a gun during the incident. “I was walking along the road,” she said. “The only thing I saw was cars parked in the road. I didn’t see anyone.”
She said she became cold and started shivering after she was hit, as the bullet left a wound beneath her earlobe. The shock of discovery made the moment even more surreal for the elderly woman who had been completely unaware of her injury moments before.
Grant’s niece Keisha McCrea spoke about her aunt’s ordeal.
Her aunt has “at least 10” grandchildren and some great-grandchildren
. McCrea described her aunt as
“a nice lady” who moved to the neighborhood 20 years ago from the island of Jamaica
.
“Nothing like that ever happened to her there,” McCrea said. “It hurts to see it happen here.”
Grant’s home nurse, who identified herself as Mary Jane, expressed strong views about the arrested teens. “If you’re out here shooting, you should just be in jail,” the nurse said. “Or, like, they have those … juvenile programs. They should at least go there. Not home, though.”
The shooter fled north on White Plains Road, according to police
. Police are still seeking a fourth suspect wanted in connection with the shooting who remains at large.
The nurse also suggested that older drug dealers in the area may have been using the teenage boys. “There’s older people … like the big drug dealers … that are literally using the young teenage boys because they know that they have that advantage,” she said. “They’re just using them.”
Both victims were taken to the hospital in stable condition
. The 18-year-old man was struck in the hip and is expected to recover from his injuries.
City data shows the troubling pattern of shootings in the area where Grant was hit. Shooting victims in the Bronx’s 47 Precinct have increased 18% to 26 so far this year compared to the 22 at this point last year, according to NYPD data. The number of shooting victims citywide has decreased by 5% to 474 from 491, the data show.
Grant’s case highlights the randomness of stray bullet violence that has plagued New York communities. Innocent bystanders going about their daily routines suddenly find themselves caught in the crossfire of gang-related disputes they had nothing to do with.
Police arrested three 16-year-old males on Saturday
following their investigation into the Friday afternoon shooting outside a residence on East 224th Street and Barnes Avenue.
Police are actively seeking the public’s help to identify a shooter who fled the scene
. A fourth male suspect, who police identified as a shooter, remains at large and was last seen wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, red shorts, black sneakers, and a black backpack.
Grant continues her recovery at her Wakefield home. Despite the trauma of being shot without even knowing it happened, she has emerged from the hospital in stable condition, one of the fortunate survivors in a city grappling with persistent gun violence.