Girl is shot protecting a nephew

A 13-YEAR-OLD girl who was wounded in a Bronx park — at the same time a parolee was shot just hours after being released from prison — caught a bullet in her leg while trying to save her nephew, a relative said Sunday.

“She cried at the hospital,” said the girl’s aunt. “I told her it could have been a lot worse. I told her she was a hero.”

The scared girl, who wanted to remain anonymous, was wounded along with Kevin Cruz, 26, when a gunman opened fire at the Nelson Playground in Highbridge at 5:15 p.m. on Thursday.

Cruz was also wounded in the leg.

The victims were taken to Lincoln Hospital.

“They are never going back to that park,” said the aunt, who is the grandmother of the boy the girl saved from danger.

“I was with them, but I left and went to the store. As soon as I got to the store, she called me and told me what happened.

“The family is just all trying to take it in. Thank God it was only her leg. But she is doing well.

“She trying to deal with it,” the aunt continued. “But I told her we are going to get counseling ASAP.”

The aunt said the girl and her brother were at the park with their nephew when they heard a shot ring out.

They didn’t think anything of it, until they heard more shots, the woman said.

“She ran to get her nephew so he wouldn’t get shot, and in the mix of that she got shot in her leg,” the aunt said.

“So she ran to the nearest house until the ambulance came.”

The girl lost her cell phone during the commotion.

The aunt said she was planning to take her heroic niece out to buy shoes and a dress for her prom. She’ll buy her a phone, too.

“I said it’s better to lose a phone than a life, and she agreed,” the woman said. “I told her I didn’t care about the phone. She’s OK.”