By Jeff Mays and Nina Mandell
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
HARLEM — A 17-year-old girl was killed by a stray bullet and a man is in the hospital after being shot in the leg early Sunday morning in Harlem.
Cheyenne Baez, of Lexington Avenue, was found shot in the back at East 128th Street by NYPD around 1 a.m. and transported to Harlem Hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Sources say the shooting was sparked by a dispute between a man and a woman and that Baez was an innocent bystander who was hanging out with friends in the courtyard of a nearby building.
"She was a good kid who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time," said a man, whose daughter was friends with Baez, as he stood near a memorial set up for the teenager.
More than 300 people gathered at a memorial for the girl on Sunday, said Harlem anti-violence activist Rev. Vernon Williams.
"She was in school and she was a bubbly, energetic individual as evidenced by the 300 people who showed up to her memorial," said Williams. "There must be a recalibration of the mindset that our young people have that it is okay to pick up a gun to settle your disputes."
At Monday's opening ceremony for the New York Harbor School on Governors Island, there was a moment of silence and prayer for Baez, who was a student at sister school the Urban Assembly School of Business for Young Women, located in the Financial District.
Also injured in the shooting was an unidentified 30-year-old man who was transported to Harlem Hospital after he was found on East 126th Street with a gunshot wound to his thigh. Sources say the man was in the courtyard at the time of the shooting. He is in stable condition, police said.
No arrests have been made and police are still investigating both shootings.
Williams said this latest shooting has pushed him to step up efforts for a trial run of a curfew law in Harlem. Some parents simply don't see anything wrong with their kids being out until 2 or 3 a.m. and having to retrieve their kids will "upset and stimulate" them, said Williams.
"In three recent shootings, if the kids had been home, they probably wouldn't be dead," said Williams. "Once we remove the kids from the street who have a support system, then we can intensively address the kids who have serious social service needs."
