RIDGE, N.Y. (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – A 3-year-old girl was struck by a stray bullet as she jumped on a couch in her family’s Long Island home on Tuesday night—and the neighbor who fired the shot killed himself in a standoff with officers, Suffolk County police said.
Gunfire erupted around 8:30 p.m. as county police detectives were at a residence at the Strathmore Ridge condo complex in Ridge to speak with a suspect, Gary Jones, 38, about a murder that happened in Central Islip on June 19.
As detectives were interviewing a friend of Jones who lived at the residence, they learned that the Jones was inside. They directed the friend, as well as children who were in the home, to go outside.
That’s when Jones appeared from a room armed with a handgun and started shooting at the detectives, police said.
In a neighboring unit, 3-year-old Lovely had just taken a bath with her brother and was jumping on the couch when a bullet came through the wall and struck her, piercing her liver.
!["It's crazy," the girl's father said. "She likes to jump on the couch and she jumped on the couch and faced that way [when she was shot]"](https://radioimg.audacy.com/aiu-media/F4Nkr0CXUAAQ0L4-8a46e686-6c64-45d2-a103-93bd05625af9.jpg?width=800)
“I turned around and my daughter was standing there with blood running from her,” her father told 1010 WINS. “I didn’t know what to do except grab her and rush her out the house. She’s a strong trooper. She stood there.”
The girl was rushed to a local hospital, where she underwent surgery and a blood transfusion. She was in stable condition Wednesday, when a trail of blood was still visible on the sidewalk outside her home.
Police surrounded the unit where Jones was and called in the emergency services unit, which made entry with a robot.
The robot found Jones dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to police, who said officers did not return fire during the standoff.
An investigation into the shooting is ongoing. No other injuries were reported.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Suffolk Homicide Squad at 631- 852-6392.
If you or someone you know needs support now, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.
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