WILLIAMSBURG — Two Brooklyn high school students were shot and wounded when a gunman fired into the crowd as school let out for the afternoon on Tuesday, police and witnesses said.
An unidentified 17-year-old boy was hit in the arm and a 14-year-old girl was hit in the leg on Grand Street outside The High School for Enterprise, Business & Technology and Progress High School for Professional Careers just before 3 p.m.
The teens were taken to Bellevue Hospital with gunshot wounds, where that were listed in stable condition, a Fire Department spokesman said.
Witnesses said pandemonium broke out near the school building at 850 Grand St. as the gunman randomly fired four shots into the crowd.
"It was an outburst. It was chaotic. Police were trying to scatter everyone. People were shellshocked," said Anaie Loyola, 19, of The Bronx. "People scattered into stores."
The girl collapsed from her wounds, a witness said.
"She fell right on the scene," said Matthew Simmond, 33, of Brownsville. He said the gunman did not appear to be aiming at any of the students who were leaving school. "He opened right in front of a cop. The kids were screaming, yelling. They ran all over."
The suspect, who Simmond said looked about 18 years old, ran west on Grand toward Humbolt Street.
A clerk in T&A Deli at 90 Bushwick Ave. said students sheltered in his shop.
“I hear bang, I wanted to run to close the door but everybody ran inside," employee Eli Mohamed, 50, said. "Maybe 40 people ran inside the shop at the same time. Everyone wanted to come to hide inside."
It was unclear what triggered the shooting, police said. No one had been arrested as of early Tuesday evening.
