A Bronx
teenager is fighting for his life after being shot outside a newly renovated park
in Yonkers this weekend.
Yonkers police say they are still looking for the
suspect or suspects who left the 17-year-old in grave condition after a shooting just
outside H. Boo Wilson Park on Tuckahoe Road Saturday night.
Investigators say the gunman fired
at least two shots at the victim before running away. The victim was hit in the
neck.
They believe the shooting may be related to an
argument between two groups earlier in the day.
The City of Yonkers celebrated the renovations and
reopening of the H. Boo Wilson Park just a few days ago. Yonkers
native, Frank Rodriguez, says the park was once all weeds.
"They fixed it up," says Rodriguez.
"The basketball courts were about half the size of what they are
now."
Rodriguez was at the park earlier in the day with
his children. He says this could have been much worse.
"If it happened maybe an hour or two earlier,
it would've been bad because there was basketball games going on," says
Rodriguez.
Rodriguez is one of many families who will be
staying away from the park.
"I won't be bringing them out here for a while,
at least until this gets figured out," says Rodriguez. "I used to come here to work out in the morning, and now I’m going to go somewhere else," says Runyon Heights resident Brian Bennett.
Lifelong Yonkers resident Donna Nolan says the
"playground is usually packed with kids." After Saturday's
shooting, it was mostly empty.
"It's just a reminder that we have a problem
with illegal guns," says Nolan. "This isn't Yonkers. These people are
coming in from other cities, and they're taking their violence and their anger
out, and it's not fair, it's not right, it's not what Yonkers is about."
Police are asking anyone with information to call Yonkers detectives at 914-377-7724.