A five-year-old girl and two men were shot yesterday around 2:30 p.m. outside 275 Halsey Street in Bed-Stuy. All three were hospitalized in stable condition. As families barbecued outside on a seasonable Sunday afternoon, two men stepped out of a silver Nissan and at least one of them began emptying his .45 caliber handgun, sources tell the Post. Little Syniah Herndon was shot in the leg during the shootout, while Jamel Franklin, 20, and Darnell Billinghurst, 23, were both shot in the arm. Syniah's mother says:
She keeps saying that she shouldn’t have gone outside today. She may never want to go outside again. She was outside playing with her friends, just running around being kids, and I was also outside in my car, when a sound like firecrackers went off and everybody started running. I looked around for her, and she was on the floor.
15 shell casings were found at the scene. The NYPD is still searching for the suspects, but investigators believe another man may have returned fire, because shell casings of a different caliber were found further down the block. The shooter's black shirt and baseball cap were also found dumped a block away, ABC reports. Unfortunately, witnesses aren't too eager to talk to police. "There was probably 150 people out here, but no one saw anything," a police source tells the Daily News.
"It's the first I heard of it," one neighbor tells NY1. "I don't think it's something that happens regularly over here. That's insane, I don't know what to say. It's insane." And Franklin's uncle tells the Post, "The neighborhood is very family-oriented, and this younger generation has another agenda. When it gets hot outside, these kids act crazy. Unfortunately, this is only the beginning of spring. I’m afraid to see what the rest of the year is going to bring."
