Shot in arms on bodega run, boy vows to play college hoops

A BROOKLYN basketball star who was shot in both arms refuses to let his hoop dreams die.

Jordan Byrdsell, 18, was picking up a few things at the D & G Deli Grocery on Division Ave. near Berry St. in South Williamsburg when a shooter opened fire Tuesday evening.

Byrdsell and two other men were struck by the gunfire, police said.

The Bedford Academy senior suffered bullet wounds in both arms and his right shoulder.

“It was painful,” he told the Daily News from his bed at Bellevue Hospital on Saturday.

Now, Byrdsell is facing the possibility that his wounds may prevent him from playing the sport he loves.

“It would be very upsetting. Basketball is my heart,” Byrdsell said. “I’ve been playing basketball since I was a kid. I’ve had a love for the sport since I was like 7. Basketball made me see life in a different way.”

Byrdsell (photo inset) will be attending Buffalo State University on a basketball scholarship in the fall.

After two blood transfusions and surgery on his right arm, the teen and his family are hopeful his strength will rebound.

“He’s been playing since he was 8 or 9 years old. His passion for basketball is strong,” said his guardian, Andrea Alston, 33. “That’s his dream, that’s all he wants to do.”

The teen’s loved ones still can’t believe that a routine run to the local bodega ended this way. They grew concerned when Byrdsell didn’t come home.

“He was going to the store to buy two a 2-liter Pepsi and a bag of flour,” his cousin Kimberly Wilson, 42, told The News. “We were making fried chicken. It’s a child going to the store. We were shocked.”

The family has created a GoFundMe page to raise funds for his mounting medical bills.

“My brother Jordan Byrdsell is a great athlete. He loves basketball,” his sister Tanazsha wrote. “It all came to a stop when one night he went to the store to get some groceries and was brutally shot.”

The man who shot Byrdsell is still on the loose, and police said they have not figured out a motive for the bloodshed.

“Whoever the gunman was, he shot the wrong person,” Wilson said. “They need to turn themselves in because they put the life of someone who has something going for himself in jeopardy.”