Three people were shot – including two innocent bystanders — on a busy Downtown Brooklyn street Friday afternoon that sent people running for cover, police said.
The gunfire erupted at around 1:50 p.m. at the intersection of Gallatin Place and Fulton Street steps away from a Gap Factory Store and a House of Hoops Foot Locker offshoot in the outdoor Fulton Mall, cops said.
The victims – two men, 31 and 28, and a 26-year-old woman – were all rushed to New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital with non-life threatening injuries, officials said.
The 31-year-old man suffered a gunshot wound to his left thigh, the 28-year-old man was shot in his left arm,and the woman was grazed once in the left hand and once in her right arm, according to cops. They were all in stable condition.
There were no immediate arrests.
The shooter, who fled the scene, was described as a black man wearing a white hat and red shorts, police said.
Police say that the 28-year-old man, who is known to cops, was the intended target and got into an argument with the gunman moments before the shooting. The other man and woman were innocent bystanders.
The woman had just left a job interview, while the 31-year-old man was merely walking down the street with a co-worker when the bullets rang out, Deputy Chief Michael Kemper, Commanding Officer of Detective Borough Brooklyn North, told reporters.
Street vendor Anthony Nickns, 58, who witnessed the sidewalk shooting, said that a woman “punched” a man in the face “and he pulled out a gun and starting shooting.”
“After she swung at him, that’s when he pulled the gun out and started shooting,” Nickns said, adding that he heard the woman shout “f—k you” before she socked the man.
Another witness Darius Word, 44, said he was standing at the corner of Fulton Street and Lawrence Street when bullets started to fly.
“It was two girls were arguing and then the guys got into it,” Word said. “A guy had on red shorts you could tell he had something he had his hand on his pocket.”
“When I looked over here towards the Gap I saw some guy on the floor,” Word recalled.
During the chaos, Word said he “froze,” but that “everyone was running around me.”
“My friend hid behind this LinkNYC sign and then I realized like, ‘oh man, I need to move,” he said. “There’s just too much violence.”
Bystanders also took to Twitter amid the commotion in the bustling area.
“NYC peeps active manhunt for a shooting suspect in Downtown Brooklyn. 2 shot next to Jay Street Station,” user Erick Moore tweeted.