Police said the child was not the intended target and three young men were being sought Friday.
BROWNSVILLE, Brooklyn, N.Y. — A 9-year-old boy was shot in the right leg Thursday evening after gunfire broke out on Bristol Street in Brownsville, and police were searching Friday for three young men who ran from the scene.
The shooting left a child hurt on a block where neighbors said children are often outside on mild afternoons. Police said the boy was not the intended target. By Friday, no arrests had been announced, no gun had been recovered and investigators were reviewing surveillance video to identify who opened fire.
Police said the shooting happened shortly before 6 p.m. near Bristol Street and Livonia Avenue. A neighbor, Esmeralda Perez, said she had just gone inside after noticing a group of young men walking up the block around 5:45 p.m. She said there had been no visible fight and no shouting before the shots. Then, she said, several gunshots rang out and people scattered. The boy was struck in the leg as the chaos unfolded. He was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where relatives said he was expected to recover. His aunt said he had been walking over to ask his cousin to come outside and play when the shooting interrupted an otherwise ordinary afternoon.
By Friday afternoon, police said they were looking for three young men: one wearing a light blue sweatsuit, one in a dark blue sweatsuit and a third dressed in black. Investigators said the child was sitting on a stoop or near one when he was caught in apparent crossfire. Police have not publicly identified a motive, and they have not said whether the suspects knew each other or had targeted anyone else on the block. The child’s aunt said her nephew was “a nice little boy” who had simply come outside to play. Perez said her own children ran inside when the shots started. She said hearing gunfire on the block was unusual and left residents shaken.
The shooting happened in Brownsville, a neighborhood that has long faced intense public attention over violence while also carrying a strong sense of local community. Neighbors told television crews the area around the Marcus Garvey apartment community is usually a place where children can spend time outside. That made the shooting especially jarring for residents who said the child was well known on the block. The violence also came hours after Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch appeared at the 73rd Precinct in Brownsville to announce that officers had seized more than 1,000 firearms citywide since the start of 2026. In that announcement, the department said shootings this year were down compared with the same period in 2024 and 2023. For residents on Bristol Street, though, those broader numbers gave way to the immediate shock of a child hit by a bullet near home.
The investigation remained open Friday. Police said officers were collecting and reviewing video from multiple cameras in the area to trace the movements of the group seen on the block before the gunfire. Authorities had not announced charges, and they had not said whether the shooting would be investigated as gang-related. They also had not released details on how many shots were fired or whether any nearby homes or vehicles were hit. The case appeared to be at the evidence-gathering stage, with detectives still working to identify the shooter and determine whether the three people being sought were all directly involved.
Residents spoke with a mix of fear and frustration as police tape went up around the block. Perez said she knew the boy and said the shooting deepened worries for families raising children there. The boy’s aunt, hurrying to the hospital, said the family was badly shaken even though doctors told them he would be OK. She directed a brief plea toward the person who fired the gun, saying neighbors all have to live in the same community. The comments reflected a neighborhood reaction shaped less by surprise at police activity than by disbelief that a child heading out to play ended up wounded.
As of Friday afternoon, the boy was expected to survive, three suspects were still being sought and investigators were continuing to review video from the scene. The next major step is whether police identify the shooter and announce arrests.
Author note: Last updated March 27, 2026.