‘I was scared for my baby’: NYC mom recalls stray bullet shooting, says she may move out of city
A Bronx mother who was struck by a stray bullet while pushing her 2-year-old in a stroller detailed the near-death experience Friday — saying she’s considering moving out of the Big Apple because of it.
The slug whizzed outside the China Wang restaurant on West 225th Street around 6 p.m. Thursday, searing through Tatiana Guzman’s left thigh — and narrowly missing her toddler daughter.
“I could have been dead. My daughter could have been killed,” Guzman told The Post in Spanish, which was translated by a family member. “There were people around, more people could have been hurt.”
She added about the rising crime in the city, “It’s crazy now that nobody can feel safe anywhere in New York. It’s crazy how the wrong people have guns in their hands.
“New York is not safe anymore … I’m thinking of moving.”
The 28-year-old home health attendant and her daughter were walking home after picking up Pampers diapers at Target when the shot rang out.
She said she didn’t see who shot the gun or which direction the bullet came from.
“I felt something hit me. I just held my leg. I felt pain. It hurt. I didn’t see any blood,” Guzman recalled.
Clutching her limb, the mom started crying out, “Somebody hit me, somebody hit me!” as blood began to pour from the wound.
The shooting on the bustling street happened just blocks away from Guzman’s apartment and was caught on surveillance video.
“I was scared for my baby. I couldn’t grab her right away because of my leg but I touched her to make sure she was OK,” the mom said. “I told her everything was going to be all right. I was crying.”
Her resilient toddler seemed much less rattled.
“She wasn’t crying. She was looking around. She didn’t know what was going on,” Guzman said.
A passerby near Broadway and West 225th Street then stopped to help wrap her leg and apply pressure and she was soon rushed to a hospital. Her daughter wasn’t injured.
The surveillance footage obtained by The Post shows the moment the mom was struck — with the impact causing her to jump away from the stroller in shock and hobble around on one leg.
Guzman’s focus then turns to her unfazed daughter in the stroller — and she is seen trying to flag down passersby for help while whipping out her cell phone. Two good Samaritans help walk her to a car, as others look on.
As she described the horrifying experience, Guzman limped around on a crutch and used medication to cope with the pain.
She said she’s found strength in knowing that “my baby wasn’t hurt” — but is worried about the gunplay that has plagued the Bronx and the Big Apple this year.
Over the first 10 months of 2021, the city has seen 1,324 shootings, up two dozen incidents of gun violence from the same time last year and nearly double pre-pandemic levels.
Guzman now wants cops to find the person responsible, and for police to beef up their presence in her neighborhood.
“I want them to catch who did it and let them pay for what they did,” she said.
Cops had no update on the circumstances surrounding the shooting as of late Friday afternoon.
Additional reporting by Craig McCarthy and Tina Moore
