Mayor Adams vowed Saturday to find “the people responsible” for shooting a 13-year-old boy on Staten Island.
The teen is in critical condition after being shot in the head at a playground in the Stapleton section, authorities said.
The youth was shot by two masked gunmen just before 4 p.m. Friday, around Fulton and Warren streets near the Stapleton Houses, according to cops.
“Too many guns, too many people who are dangerous are allowed to have guns, and they are, often, extreme recidivists who are clearly coming on our streets,” the mayor declared at a city hiring event downtown. “This …really breaks my heart to have a 13-year-old child shot…we will find the people responsible.”
Friends and relatives of the boy gathered at Richmond University Medical Center Saturday, where the mood was pensive and most declined to speak with a reporter.
The boy is “doing real good,” one woman told The Post.
The victim is a resident of the South Beach Houses and a student at The Eagle Academy in Stapleton, according to the Staten Island Advance. The paper, citing a source, reported the teen was being mentored by a community advocate at the time of the incident as a means to distance himself from street violence, but he was caught up in the shooting
Friday’s shooting occurred as major crimes soared 38% this year through May 14 in Staten Island’s North Shore 120th Precinct compared to the same time last year, NYPD data show. Murders skyrocketed 250%, from two to seven, while robberies ballooned 118% and felony assaults climbed 18%, the statistics say.