A 66-year-old Harlem woman became the second victim of stray gunfire this week in NYC. Virginia Valree was walking along Lenox Avenue in Harlem around 3:30 p.m. yesterday, carrying potatoes to deliver to a sick friend, when a bullet struck her left leg and knocked her into traffic on West 135th Street. "I'm horrified. All I know is I was just standing there and my leg gave in," Valree told the Daily News from her hospital bed last night. "I was on the ground. I was laying there saying, 'Somebody stop the traffic!' because I didn't want to get run over."
Police believe the shot came from a nearby altercation, but no arrests have been made. Street vendor Mohamed Gendia says, "There was shouting right by me ... then I heard a shot." The suspects then ran in opposite directions along Lenox Avenue. The bullet fractured a bone in Valree's leg, and doctors will operate on her to remove it, but she's in otherwise stable condition.
Monday's victim of stray gunfire wasn't so lucky; 15-year-old Vada Vasquez is in a medically-induced coma after a stray bullet struck her in the head. At least seven people have been killed by stray bullets so far this year, compared to four people fatally shot by errant bullets in 2008.
