WILLIAMSBRIDGE — A woman is in stable condition after she was shot twice by her husband at home on Christmas morning, police said.
Rafael Herrera, 37, shot his wife Yadira Perea Saavedra, 27, at 9:54 a.m. after the pair had a fight in their home at the corner of East 220th Street and Paulding Avenue, police said.
She was shot in the arm and grazed in the neck, and was taken to Jacobi Hospital in stable condition, police said. Her husband fled, police said.
The victim's brother, who also lives in the house, said he'd sometimes hear the couple fighting.
"Sometimes he'd say, 'I wanna kill you, I wanna kill you,' but I didn't think he'd do it," Sergio Perea Saavedra said.
His sister had talked about wanting a divorce from her husband of more than a decade, but she never said why.
"My sister never told me what happened, they have problems," he said. "She's quiet."
Saavedra was at work at a food market on Pelham Parkway when his wife called him before 10 a.m. and said his sister had been shot.
When he rushed home she was lying on the floor of her second-floor apartment and his niece and nephew were crying, he said.
"He shot and left," he said.
The family celebrated Christmas the night before with a big party, Saavedra said. Everything seemed fine then, as countless friends and relatives came over with food, drinks and presents.
"I don't know what happened," he said.
Police are still searching for Herrera, according to an NYPD spokesman.
Herrera, described as 5-foot-8 and armed, was last seen wearing a blue sweatshirt and blue jeans, police said.
