NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A 14-year-old boy was grazed by a bullet and an MTA bus driver was injured Thursday morning when gunfire erupted outside the vehicle in Harlem.
Police officials said the teenager suffered a graze wound to the head when shots were fired at the intersection of Lenox Avenue and West 139th Street just before 10:30 a.m.
The teen was boarding an M1 bus when the gunman fired two rounds, police said.
One round grazed the teenager’s head before hitting the front windshield of the bus and the second struck a metal pole that is used to support a protective barrier surrounding the bus driver’s seat inside the vehicle.
Both the 14-year-old and the bus driver, a 4-year veteran of the MTA, were transported to NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem in stable condition.
NYC Transit Interim President Craig Cipriano said the bus driver suffered a “minor injury to the left hand” and is expected to be released from the hospital later in the day.
He added that the metal bar on the protective barrier prevented the driver from being seriously injured in the incident.
According to police officials, detectives currently believe the 14-year-old was the intended target of the shooting and are investigating if the incident is gang related.
Cipriano noted that the shooting is an isolated incident and stressed to New Yorkers that the “bus and subway system is safe.”
Detectives are currently doing a canvas of the route that the gunman ran and are hoping to find surveillance footage of the suspect.
The investigation remains ongoing.
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