A 44-year-old man was arrested for shooting eight people, including four children, at a Fourth of July barbecue on Coney Island, cops said Wednesday.
The suspect, Robert Smith, allegedly opened fire on the family gathering in an apartment tower courtyard on W. 30th St. near Surf Ave. — just a block from the Brooklyn neighborhood’s famed boardwalk and beach — as fireworks boomed overhead, around 10:35 p.m., according to police.
Eight people were hit by the spray of bullets, including a 21-year-old woman who was shot in the chest and is currently hospitalized in critical condition. Other victims included a 6-year-old boy who was shot in the stomach, a 7-year-old boy shot in both legs, a 12-year-old boy struck in the leg, a 14-year-old boy hit in the thigh, a 25-year-old woman shot in the leg, a 33-year-old man shot in the chest, and a 37-year-old man wounded in the shoulder, authorities said.
“My Moms was making everybody plates,” said Dejahn Williams, 22, brother of the critically injured woman.
“Everybody just got down. We see blood going everywhere. People got hit,” Williams said. “At that moment I’m not worried about my life, I’m just worried about all the little ones. I see the kids. Everybody on the ground.”
“I had my back turned,” the mother of the critically injured woman said, giving her name only as Tiffany. “It was a family barbecue with just family. I was serving food to the kids — and, next thing you know, gunshots just came out of nowhere. We didn’t even know it was gunshots because it’s the Fourth of July … The next thing you know, we see people falling on the ground and running.”
The shooter, who was wearing all black, including a black ski mask, shot into the crowd through the steel bars of the fence surrounding the courtyard, witnesses and authorities said.
Smith is charged with multiple counts of attempted murder, according to police.
His arraignment was pending Wednesday evening.
The shooting happened just two blocks away from where drill rapper Truron Roach-Martin, 24, who performed under the name Briscoe, was fatally shot in the face and chest Wednesday. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch referred to his killing as gang-related and said investigators are looking into whether it’s connected to Sunday’s violence.
But the family who threw the barbecue Saturday said they don’t think there’s a connection and have no idea why they were targeted.