9-Year-Old Dyker Heights Boy Finds Parents’ Rifle, Accidentally Shoots Teen Girl

A local teen is very lucky after being shot by a 9-year-old Dyker Heights boy who was playing with his dad’s .22 caliber rifle over the weekend.

The boy, who found the gun inside his parents’ second-floor apartment at 71st Street near 12th Avenue, accidentally fired one round, hitting the 14-year-old girl in the shoulder on Friday, March 20 at 6:15pm, officials told the New York Daily News.

Fortunately, the girl was not seriously wounded:

The girl, who the Daily News is not identifying, was rushed to Lutheran Medical Center with minor injuries, police officials said.

By Friday evening, she was walking around and was expected to be discharged, a source with knowledge of the incident said.

Cops were continuing to investigate the horrifying freak accident early Saturday morning and it remained unclear how the boy and his victim knew each other.

“Everyone is OK,” a neighbor, who declined to give a name, told the Daily News.