By Nick Rizzi, Murray Weiss and Leslie Albrecht
DNAinfo Reporters
JAMAICA — A drive-by shooting at a Wendy's in Jamaica — a popular afterschool hangout — left two men and a teen seriously injured and terrified school kids who witnessed the gang-fueled violence, officials said.
Gunfire erupted in the parking lot of the fast food eatery at 139th Street and 89th Avenue, in Jamaica at 3:05 p.m., a block from an elementary school and down the street from a middle school.
Investigators believe members of the notorious Latin Kings gang pulled into the crowded parking lot in a Toyota Corolla with darkly tinted windows, then opened fire on members of the MS-13 gang, Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said at the scene of the shooting.
"It's very troublesome," Brown said. "It's a crowded area. Kids were coming out of school."
The gunshots sent screaming witnesses scrambling for cover, said 43-year-old David Rosado, who heard three or four shots from inside the restaurant.
"Everybody scattered," Rosado said.
One victim was shot in the left leg, another in the right arm, and another was shot twice in one leg, a police source told DNAinfo.
Two of the victims were rushed to New York Hospital Queens, and the third was taken to Jamaica hospital, according to the fire department. All suffered serious, but not life-threatening injuries.
One 14-year-old witness said he saw a boy who had been shot in the left arm bleeding from his wound. He and his friend, both students at nearby M.S. 217, said they've witnessed gang fights recently in the neighborhood, but none had involved guns.
"The last couple of weeks there's been a lot of gangs," another 14-year-old boy said. "Lots of fights."
Jack Shearme, 50, who lives a block from the Wendy's, said his 16-year-old daughter, a student at Flushing High School, came home sobbing after she and her 10-year-old and 7-year-old sisters saw the aftermath of the bloodshed on their way home from school.
Shearme said he didn't believe his daughters at first, so he went to the scene to see it with his own eyes.
"I thought she was just kidding," Shearme said. "She's distraught. It's not something you see every day."
Brown called the shooting a disturbing reminder of gang activity in Queens.
"Like in so many different boroughs, we do have a gang problem here in the area," Brown said. "It's something that the police are very much on top of."
