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Bed-Stuy Residents Rally Against Gun Violence After Teen Was Shot

 Shaquonna Moye (right), whose 17-year-old was shot on Lexington Avenue on Friday, joined residents and members of Save Our Streets Bed-Stuy to rally against gun violence.
Shaquonna Moye (right), whose 17-year-old was shot on Lexington Avenue on Friday, joined residents and members of Save Our Streets Bed-Stuy to rally against gun violence.
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DNAinfo/Camille Bautista

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — Residents and members of an anti-gun violence group rallied on Monday, calling for an end to neighborhood shootings like the one last week that left one teen injured.

Members of Save Our Streets (S.O.S.) Bed-Stuy rallied outside a deli on the corner of Marcy Avenue and Quincy Street, a block away from where 17-year-old Quamel Moye was shot Friday.

The teen was standing in front of 320 Lexington Ave. at roughly 5 p.m. when he heard shots and then felt a sting of pain, according to police. He was taken to Kings County Hospital with a bullet wound to his buttocks and released Saturday.

S.O.S. staff said Moye was not the target. Police had no further information on the incident and no arrests have been made.

The victim’s mother, Shaquonna Moye, joined S.O.S. “violence interrupters” on Monday to draw attention to the spate of shootings this year.

“It’s really getting out of hand in this neighborhood and there’s nobody out here but S.O.S. that is rallying for this to stop,” Moye said. “I have another 15-year-old son who is scared to come out of the house because of what might happen to him.”

There have been five shootings in the 79th Precinct so far this year, including an incident that left a 16-year-old dead earlier this month, according to the most recently available NYPD data.

Friday's incident marked the first shooting in the anti-violence group’s “catchment area” since the organization started covering the neighborhood last fall. S.O.S. workers help mediate conflicts in the vicinity of Kosciuszko to Madison streets and Nostrand Avenue to Marcus Garvey Boulevard.

About a dozen residents and group members showed up for the rally on Monday. S.O.S. members handed out pamphlets and posters to locals as they held up signs that read, “DON’T SHOOT. I Want To Grow Up.”

Organizers called out to residents over a megaphone, chanting "Peace up, guns down" and urged others to get involved in ending violence in the community.

“It’s not gangsta to shoot somebody, we can talk it out like men,” said David Grant, an outreach worker for S.O.S. Bed-Stuy.

“Far too many times we look at each other but we don’t speak to each other, yet when the police shoot us, we have a lot to say about it. But when we shoot each other, it’s okay. It’s not okay. Stop shooting and start living.”