THE BRONX — A 20-year-old pregnant woman was shot in the face and stomach after she intervened in a fight between her friend and her friend's parents in Claremont Wednesday morning, police said.
The woman, who is six to seven weeks pregnant, was taken to Lincoln Medical Center in stable condition and the unborn child was unharmed, police said. Her name was not released by police.
The squabble began when the pregnant woman was standing with her brother and his girlfriend in front of an apartment at Third Avenue and East 170th Street about 3:50 a.m. Wednesday, relatives and police said.
The trio began fighting with the people inside the apartment, and a man rushed out of the apartment with a gun and shot the woman, police said.
The gunman was taken into police custody but has not yet been charged, police said.
Jeanette Meredith, 42, who lives in the apartment with her husband, Arthur Meredith, 38, said the incident began when her daughter, Elizzabeth Saez, 23, showed up with her boyfriend, Malik Zulu, 19, and Zulu's sister.
Meredith said Saez had been kicked out of the apartment four years ago but had been harassing them ever since.
She added that Zulu threatened her husband with a baseball bat and Zulu's pregnant sister threatened them with a steak knife.
"Malik's sister had a steak knife and was calling us out, saying, 'I'm going to kill you! Come out!'" Meredith said.
Meredith said her husband ran out with a gun, which she claimed was a starter pistol that was full of blanks instead of bullets, in an attempt to scare the trio off.
"It was just to scare [them] so they'd go away. It was self-defense," she said. "I heard screaming and cursing and, 'Come on! Come on!' Then, 'Pow! Pow!'" the mom said.
