The suspected gunman in Coney Island. (Source: NYPD)

The suspected gunman in Coney Island. (Source: NYPD)

A 10-year-old boy and 25-year-old man were injured by stray bullets after an unidentified man opened fire on Mermaid Avenue near West 23rd Street on Saturday.

The two were among at least 21 people shot across all five boroughs in a shockingly violent weekend that left four people dead and 17 injured. Nine were victims of shootings that took place in Brooklyn.

Police responded to the Coney Island incident at 7:30 p.m., finding the boy shot in the knee and the man in the arm. They were both treated at Lutheran Hospital and expect a full recovery. The two did not know each other.

Police are now searching for a man they believe to be the shooter, who was captured on nearby surveillance cameras wearing a yellow t-shirt, yellow shorts, white sneakers and a multi-colored hat.

The 10-year-old is identified by the Daily News as Eddie Abdelrahaman. The paper caught up with the boy and his father:

When Kamal Ismail, 51, heard a string of gunshots outside his Coney Island home, he immediately did a head count for his children. All but one of his six kids, 10-year-old Eddie Abdelrahaman, was in the house.

“My heart went down, like I was having a heart attack,” Ismail said Sunday.

His son was grazed in the thigh when the barrage of gunfire erupted at 7:20 p.m. Sunday.

“It just stinged a little bit. It didn’t hurt,” said Eddie, who’s out of school for summer vacation and was going into a store on 24th St. and Mermaid Ave. to get juice with two friends when bullets went flying.

“Whenever we heard the first shot, everyone got on the floor and ducked,” he said, “When we heard it, we thought it was fireworks.”

Ismail said he is constantly concerned about violence in Coney Island.

ABC News helps put the shootings in context:

It marks the third time in June that at least a dozen people were shot over a weekend. But police commissioner William Bratton says the number of shootings is actually lower than this time last year, and that 1,200 additional officers will be hitting the streets this week.

They include 600 new officers who are graduating Monday from the Police Academy. They will be partnered with veteran officers and sent out to target the most violent, crime-ridden neighborhoods in the city.

Two other shootings took place nearby over the bloody weekend, including one in Flatlands on Avenue J and another in Flatbush on Church Avenue.

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  • Nick Bianchino

    yeah, we don’t need stop and frisk..

    • joe

      you do realize that homicides are significantly down this year compared to the same time last year when stop & frisk was being used. NYC could see a record low in homicides this year if the current rate continues

      • Nick Bianchino

        give it time Joe,
        give it time…
        Shootings went down year after year while stop and frisk was in place.
        Even as the NYPD stopped people less and less, the law made some criminals think twice before brazenly carrying.

        • joe

          and homicides are continuing to drop. There is always a spike in shootings in the summer every year because more people are outside for longer periods of time. Now I do like stop & frisk and I wish they didn’t get rid of it because i believe it is a good way to stop people from carrying guns. However, it seems to have no effect on the number of shootings/homicides for whatever reason. (at least for this year)

      • Alex

        Joe,

        You must be kidding. Not searching thugs for weapons is a good thing?

        • joe

          No I never said I disagreed with stop & frisk. I think it was a good thing. Im just saying that homicides and shootings could hit a record low this year. Which is something new yorkers should be proud of. In the 70s and 80s these kind of numbers wouldn’t even be thought. It is great to see how far NYC has come. Yet there is still work to be done

    • Andrew

      I know, right? That pesky 4th amendment.

      • Nick Bianchino

        since New York is denying it’s law abiding citizens the 2nd amendment.
        then yeah, screw the 4th.

  • Ani

    It’s starting to feel like 1983 all over again…..

    • joe

      really? You must have not been living in NYC in 1983 because it was so much worse. 21 people shot was a slow crime weekend in 1983

      • Ani

        Slow down, read again. ‘Starting to feel like’. I was here. Even was old enough to know what was going on and remember it well. Still my favorite era for music.

  • Will Iannotti

    Summer is just getting started. Watch and see. There were 18 shootings this past weekend, 9 in Brooklyn. The only reason homicides are down, and that will change without stop and frisk, is because these these mutts can’t shoot water off a boat. There is a saying where I come from. A gun don’t bounce twice in Brooklyn. Keep your heads down folks.

    • Supporter of Left Handed Rule

      Quite so, Will I Am; the Brooklyn Bounce is world famous. Thanks for the memory.

    • joe

      Just to put things in perspectives for you (because you think NYC is so bad) this past 4th of July weekend NYC had 12 shootings of which 3 were fatal. Compare that to 4th of July weekend in Chicago which had 82! Yes 82 shootings with 14 of them being fatal. NYC has a population of over 8 million people. Chicago has a population of not even 3 million.

      So while NYC has its problems with violence. We are not doing to bad a city compared to other big cities in America. However I do agree that stop & frisk should be put back into play as it is a good scare tactic for people looking to carry guns

  • Mary

    There have been a lot of shootings, I don’t see how homicides are down.

    • Will Iannotti

      Hey Mary,
      If your not dead, its not a homicide.

    • joe

      because their were more shootings in previous years compared to this year. Shootings always jump up in the summer time because more people are outside interacting with one another and violence becomes more common

  • HadEnough

    Now we stop&frisk after murders, instead of before them.

  • gary

    Although there have been 61 more shooting victims so far this year than were at the same time last year. Murders are down. You all seem to be missing an important point, that is, when one shoots someone, they do not necessarily wind up dead. I guess, luckily for those shooting victims, a lot of them have survived thus far. But, for those of us with the need and lust for all things the macabre, the summer is still young. Traditionally, the NYC crime wave lasts from the Fourth of July and culminating with the West Indian Day parade on Labor Day Weekend.

    • Nick Bianchino

      the West Indian Day parade is always good for a spike in shootings