Two separate shootings in Brooklyn left four boys and four others wounded in Coney Island on Saturday night and a police detective escaping serious injury after he was struck in the back of his bulletproof vest early Sunday, the police said.
The gunfire in Coney Island erupted just before 10:40 p.m. during a family barbecue at an apartment building on Surf Avenue near the boardwalk, where large crowds gathered to watch a fireworks display, the police said.
Among those injured were four boys ages 6, 7, 12 and 14, and a 21-year-old woman, who was shot in the chest and was in critical condition on Sunday, the police said.
The 7-year-old boy was shot in both legs, and the 6-year-old boy was shot in the abdomen, the police said. It was unclear on Sunday what prompted the shooting. The police did not identify a shooter, and there have been no arrests.
On Sunday in Crown Heights, around 4:15 a.m., the detective, Robert L. Karroll, and another officer were parked in an unmarked police cruiser near the corner of Nostrand Avenue and St. Johns Place when an 18-year-old man carrying a gun approached their car, the police said.
The officers got out of the cruiser and “attempted to engage the armed individual,” according to Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch, who spoke at a news conference early Sunday.
The exact exchange between the man and the officers was unclear because the police “do not have body-worn camera video of the actual shooting incident, presumably because it happened so quickly and unexpectedly,” Ms. Tisch said.
But, according to Ms. Tisch, as the officers tried to get the man to drop his weapon, the man opened fire.
He shot several rounds, including one that struck Detective Karroll in the back, Ms. Tisch said. Other rounds left the police cruiser riddled with bullet holes.
The man fled on foot about four blocks southwest to Rogers Avenue and Union Street, where he was arrested. He was carrying a 9-millimeter handgun, she said. As of Sunday, his name had not been released.
At the news conference, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he was “relieved” that Detective Karroll was wearing a bulletproof vest and that “the incident did not hold more grave consequences.”
