By Meredith Hoffman and Patrick Hedlund
DNAinfo Staff
WILLIAMSBURG — A 10-year-old Norwegian boy who was visiting the city for the first time with his family was grazed by a stray bullet on Williamsburg street Monday night after an argument between two groups of people.
Josef Partapouli was released from Bellevue Hospital Tuesday afternoon after being struck by the gunfire at 385 Broadway, near Hooper Street, shortly before 11 p.m. the night before.
A relative of the boy's, who declined to give her name, said Josef was visiting New York for the first time with his father, and that he had been in the city about five days when the shooting occurred.
"He's here on a nine-day trip," she said. "He came to see me."
She added: "I've been staying with him in the hospital all night."
Tuesday afternoon Josef returned to the woman's apartment on South Fifth Street. As he walked into the building, scrapes and bruises were not visible. He and his father declined to comment.
“Obviously the boy was not the intended target,” a police source said.
The incident was sparked by a fight between two groups of individuals at the location, sources said.
A witness who gave his name only as Louie said he saw the clash from across the street.
"They started arguing - there were about eight of them," he said. "All of a sudden I heard two shots."
Christian Cedeno, 18, a resident who saw Josef after the shooting, said,
"He was standing on the sidewalk holding his stomach."
The boy was not visibly bleeding, nor was he crying, but his father stood with his arm around the child, he recounted.
"It's crazy that little kid got shot," said Cedeno.
There were no arrests as of Tuesday, police said.
