A drive-by shooter’s lethal mistake killed an innocent 12-year-old boy and critically injured his favorite cousin when the blundering gunman blasted 11 bullets into the wrong parked car in New York, police sources said Friday.
The cold-hearted shooter opened fire as Kade Lewin, his cousin 26-year-old Jenna Ellis and Lewin’s niece, 8-year-old Kylie Thompson, sat eating inside a black Toyota Corolla after stopping at a nearby Boston Market.
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Sources told local news that the gunman was hunting a target driving a similar make and model before pulling the trigger.
The kids were watching a movie while they were having dinner in the car when gunshots rang out.
“It happened right in front of her face,” said Thompson’s father, who asked not to be named. “They were watching a movie in the car and she just remembers the gunshots. We had to take her to the hospital.”
“I’m trying to stay strong for my daughter and my family,” he continued.
The 9mm shell casings from the shooting were left lying in a row on the street as the killer sped away from the East Flatbush crime scene in a black car with out-of-state plates around 7:45 p.m. Thursday.
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A police source said the motive behind the deadly attack remained unclear as the boy’s mourning mother hoped for an arrest and prepared to bury her child.
“Just justice,” the boy’s mom Suzette Lewin told The News when asked what she wanted one day after the fatal shooting. “Justice for my baby.”
The mother, who was working at a nearby hair salon Thursday evening when the shooting started, was too upset to speak about the street violence that killed her son — hit in the head and chest as the bullets began flying.
Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell promised the NYPD had unleashed “every possible resource” in the manhunt for the fugitive suspect and his getaway driver.
“We have a number of leads that we intend to follow up on (Friday) and when we have some information we will make sure we will put it out,” said Sewell, who urged residents of the local community to share anything they know about the killing.
“We cannot lose sight of the fact that there are people being hurt in our streets. There’s violence affecting our communities, and it has to stop.”
Ellis remained in critical condition Friday at Kings County Hospital with multiple gunshot wounds to the face, chest and arms, police sources said. The 8-year-old passenger miraculously escaped without injury, and later told police that she was eating and looking at her phone when the explosion of gunfire started, the police source said.
A shocked neighbor of Ellis described her as a “church lady” who was extremely close with the slain boy and only recently received her driver’s license. A second neighbor recalled the two cousins were “together all the time,” while remembering the murder victim as a constant presence playing in his backyard.
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No arrests were made, and there was zero evidence the victims were the intended targets, according to a police source. Detectives were canvassing along Church Ave., where the slain boy’s mother worked, for video of the fleeing suspects.
The black Toyota Corolla where the boy was shot remained at the scene early Friday, the rear passenger window shattered. The car belonged to the mother of the slain child, the source said.
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