THE BRONX — The 5-year-old boy who was shot in the head on his birthday Monday by a violent parolee suffered damage to three parts of the brain and may not recover from the wound, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Jaheen Hunter had a bullet fragment removed from his brain by doctors after he being shot by Michael Quiles, 27, on Washington Avenue near East 167th Street in Morrisania about 5 p.m., the Bronx District Attorney’s Office said.
“The bullet entered his brain,” Assistant District Attorney Felicity Lung said. “The doctors are not able to give us whether the child will live.”
Quiles was ordered held without bail on attempted murder, assault and weapons charges at his arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court Wednesday morning.
He was aiming at another man when he opened fire, but missed and instead wounded Jaheen as the boy came out of 1138 Washington Ave. with his dad, authorities said
Quiles was arrested by U.S. Marshals on Tuesday, half a block away from the shooting scene.
He had been released on parole in October after serving six years in prison for kidnapping an Albany woman in 2009 and torturing her over speaker phone while her brother was forced to listen, according to The Record News.
Jaheen remains at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in critical condition.
"For the love of our baby Hunter, we ask you continue to lift our family uplift in prayer," relative Linda Kemp told reporters during a prayer vigil outside the hospital Tuesday night, according to NBC New York.
My prayers are w/Jaheen Hunter, the 5 year-old Yonkers resident who is in critical condition due to yesterday’s shooting in the Bronx.
— Mayor Mike Spano (@MayorMikeSpano) June 6, 2017
Quiles has 10 prior arrests, including for drugs and weapons possession, law-enforcement sources said.
His lawyer, Sydney Thaxter, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
