Girl, 5, Recovering from Ridgewood Gang Shooting

Injured in Ridgewood While Walking Home

By Conor Greene

As a five-year-old girl shot earlier this week continues to recover in a Manhattan hospital, police continue the investigation, which has already resulted in three arrests.
W
hile the gunman in the incident on Himrod at about 9:30 p.m. on Monday remains at large, three reputed members of the Trinitarios gang have been arrested in connection with the shooting, and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly expects additional arrests.

The girl was shot while walking with her parents through their Ridgewood neighborhood on the way home from visiting nearby relatives, according to police sources. Her father noticed members of the Bloods gang following behind them. He then saw a man, later identified as a member of the Trinitarios, walking towards them holding a machete.

The family tried to flee along Himrod before realizing that the little girl had been struck by a bullet, said police. They took her on foot to nearby Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, where she was treated for a collapsed lung. She has since been moved to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell, where she is in critical but stable condition.

Doctors are still working to recover the bullet that pierced her lung, as family members keep a bedside vigil at the hospital. “It’s their only daughter, so they’re kind of distraught,” said a police source of the family.

Also injured in the shootout was 22-year-old Frances Dejesus of Stanhope Street. According to a police report, the victim was standing in front of 17-12 Himrod with a group of friends when five males approached from Seneca Avenue. A Hispanic male, about 22 to 25 years old and wearing a red bandana, pulled out a gun and shot Dejesus in the left leg.

Several minutes after responding to a report of a man shot, police were alerted that a child was also shot. A crime scene was established, but despite a search that included a helicopter flying overhead and officers on nearby rooftops, the shooter remains at large.

However, officers from the 104th Precinct used video footage from near the scene to identify a number of suspects who were interviewed. In addition, police identified other people of interest through summonses issued last week at a hooky party in a nearby apartment building.

So far, the only people arrested in the incident are Thomas Herro, 18, Antonio Rosario, 16, and Wilson Santana, 16, who police say are members of the Trinitarios.