Exclusive | Anguished mom of NYC girl, 7, struck by stray bullet begs Mayor Adams for action on youth violence: We cant do nothing
A 7-year-old girl who was struck by a stray bullet in Harlem after eating pizza with family remains unable to speak, her anguished mother said Tuesday — as she begged the city to take action on youth violence.Fatou Keita did show some signs of improvement as she recuperated from surgery, her family keeping vigil at her hospital bed, following the shocking broad daylight shooting Monday, her mother Fatoumata Keita, 51, told The Post.“She is a brave girl,” Keita said in an exclusive interview.“She is bleeding. She’s moving.
She wants to talk.”The shell-shocked mother then broke down in tears as she said Mayor Eric Adams needed to address gun violence that both victimizes and is carried out by youths.“We can’t do nothing,” she said.“My daughter is in the hospital, only seven years old.
My heart is broken.”Two teen boys — a 17-year-old and Daniel Idowu, 19 — were arrested after the shooting at around 2:50 p.m.at 146th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, and later charged with attempted murder, sources said.The motive behind the shooting remained unclear Tuesday, but sources said it appeared the gunmen had fired off nine shots at someone before running off.As the gunshots ricocheted, young Fatou, her 14-year-old brother and father Ahmed were walking down the street, her mother said.The trio had just finished up eating pizza while on an errand to fix Fatou’s eyeglasses, the mom said.“She said, ‘Daddy, let’s go.
You’re gonna fix my glasses today.I don’t wanna go to school tomorrow, my glasses are not fixed yet,” her mom said.The family heard the gunshots as they strode near a Starbucks, prompting Ahmed to rush them into a 99-cent store for cover, Fatoumata Keita said.Unbeknownst to the dad, a bullet had hit his daughter in the stomach.“She tells her father, ‘Daddy, daddy, daddy,” Keita said.“The father lifted her clothes.
She has the shot here,” the mother said, pointing her abdomen.“She has the shot in the ba...