A heartbroken mother is pleading for assistance after her 9-year-old son became an unintended victim in a suspected gang-related shooting in Brooklyn. Desperate to relocate her family to a safer environment, she is reaching out for support.
“I truly dislike asking for help, absolutely hate it,” shared Chanise Richardson on Facebook, alongside a picture of her son recovering in a hospital bed.
“I’ve been toughing it out for 21 years,” she admitted in her post last Friday. “But there comes a point when you have to set aside your pride and make an effort. For my children, I would do anything! I’m asking for your help to give my kids a fair shot at a better life.”
The young boy, identified by neighbors as Sebastian, was injured by a gunshot to the back of his leg outside his home on Bristol Street in Brownsville, just before 6 p.m. on Thursday, according to police and sources.
“I heard the shots, pow, pow, pow,” recounted a longtime resident of the neighborhood since the 1990s.
“I heard someone scream, and it sounded like my grandson,” she said, choosing to remain anonymous due to concerns about retaliation. “I rushed downstairs and found him there. He was screaming and crying, ‘Auntie, I got shot. I got shot in my leg. Somebody help me.'”
The boy was holding onto a railing near the building’s front door but remained standing, she said.
“He was bleeding and he wouldn’t let anyone touch him,” she said. “He said he saw the guy and the guy ran up into the building.”
His mom came outside and went to the hospital with him, said the woman, who talked to police about what happened.
“I feel horrible,” she said. “I feel sad. It could have been one of my grandkids.”
The boy was rushed to Maimonides Medical Center, police said.
In another emotional post, the mom wrote, “This really broke my heart boy I tell you.
“I keep these kids in a lot more than none. They should be able to go outside and be kids…I had a 2 year plan yall [sic] to get tf out of here,” according to the second Facebook post. “In the 21 years of being a mom this is the hardest thing I had to do 
to watch my baby go through this n not be able to help. My babies need an environment like now.”
Cops posted flyers in the area offering a $3,500 reward for information about the identity of the gunmen. Three people fled the scene, police sources said.
An area woman who identified herself as Kay Kay said the mom should relocate for her son’s mental health.
“He should not stay in that environment,” said the 51-year-old daycare owner. “It will have a negative impact on him. He’s going to be scared to go outside. He is going to be reliving it over and over again.”
She hopes the shooter and his accomplices gets caught .
“They should be locked up,” she said. “Thank God it was just his leg. What about the next child?”
The child was shot six blocks away from the 73rd Precinct station house where NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch held a news conference hours earlier to announce the seizure of 1,000 firearms since the start of the year.
There have been 142 shootings this year citywide as of March 22, which was the same number as during the same period last year.
But in the past 28 days shootings have ticked up 32% to 54 compared to 41 in the same span last year, NYPD data show.
