A 16-year-old girl was killed and four people were wounded by gunfire Thursday after two groups clashed on a crowded Brooklyn boardwalk, cops and witnesses said, according to the NY Daily News.
Two of the victims were bystanders, sources said.
One man used an umbrella to crack another man in the head as the fight erupted on the Brighton Beach Boardwalk near Brighton Sixth St. about 5:20 p.m. Suddenly, a gunman squeezed off about eight rounds, first shooting in the air before aiming at the brawling crowd, cops and witnesses said.
Onlookers scurried into nearby stores and restaurants, huddling in fear as the bullets flew near the oceanfront, witnesses said.
"It was chaotic," said a 48-year-old Queens woman who was visiting Brighton Beach. "We looked at the boardwalk and everyone was running north. It was hectic. It was panic."
The teen - identified by friends as Tysha Jones, a Landmark High School student - was shot under the left armpit, cops said.
She later died at Coney Island Hospital, where a 23-year-old man was clinging to life with a gunshot wound to his stomach.
Tykwan Beckett, 23, and two other men - ages 25 and 26 - were taken to Lutheran Hospital. All were expected to survive.
The two injured bystanders - one hit inside Tatiana Restaurant - were among those in stable condition, sources said.
"I hope that somebody comes forward," said Beckett's sister, Ebony, 27. "If they don't stop him, [the shooter is] going to keep going."
Five people were shot in the mayhem at the boardwalk. (Patrick Q. Barr for News)
Beckett - a father of 2-year-old twins, a boy and a girl - was hit in his ankle and elbow during the wild shooting.
A 21-year-old Bronx woman who is eight months pregnant said she was 30 feet from the gunfire and feared for her life.
"I got nervous," said the woman, who declined to give her name
"At the moment, you don't know where he was going to shoot," she added. "I left my sandals. I left everything. I could have fell on my stomach - I could have gotten shot."
One stray bullet pierced through the window of an elderly woman's apartment as she sat in front of her TV, witnesses said.
The bullet whizzed through the sixth-floor apartment of Marion Smith, 84, but didn't hit her, said a security guard at the building.
Dozens of cops from Brooklyn and Staten Island swarmed the area. Investigators believe the violence erupted between two rival gangs, cops said.
As the sun faded following a thunderstorm, police were walking shoulder to shoulder on the boardwalk, shining flashlights into the crevices of the pieces of lumber, looking for shell casings.
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