Woman tells how she and pal were wounded in Harlem shoot

They met up at a Harlem barbecue, two young women enjoying a pleasant night out, until gunfire erupted and sent them scattering in separate directions.

They were both wounded in the melee, along with seven others who were shot, including a college basketball standout home for summer break killed in the mayhem.

Dayandra Arriola, 23, didn’t even realize right away she’d been shot after gunfire rang out early Monday at Harlem River Park. A bullet grazed her collarbone, and caused minimal bleeding.

Her friend Briana Colon had no doubt. The bullet that hit her landed in her back and came to rest in her stomach. She can’t even talk about the incident because her physical pain is too intense, her mother said.

“She’s not saying too much right now because the pain is overwhelming,” said Colon’s mother, who did not want to give her name. “She’s traumatized and everything on top of that.”

Arriola said she is still trying to process it all.

“All I remember is just I was standing with my friend, and all we hear is multiple pops. And I just remember running, then I just felt something hit my chest,” Arriola said. “We just came out to have fun. All I remember is just the ambulance lights, the police lights. And people just running for safety.”

Arriola and Colon were among nine people shot when rival gangs opened fire at the park near Harlem River Drive and E. 138th St., where a local rapper, Rich Rhymer, organized a Father’s Day cookout and was shooting a music video.

Killed in the crossfire was Darius Lee, 21, a basketball player on full scholarship at Houston Baptist University who had come home two weeks earlier for his summer break. Lee had been a standout at St. Raymond’s High School in the Bronx. There have been no arrests. Arriola said it took her about five minutes to realize she’d been shot.

“I felt pain in my chest, and I ran to the emergency room after,” she said. “It’s just a dent in my collarbone. I think my collarbone is what saved the bullet from not entering my body.”

And she said she would probably stay away from neighborhood gatherings like this from now on. “I’d probably just do a barbecue or something with family, where I know everybody,” Arriola said.

Colon’s mother had the same advice for her daughter.

“Thank God that my daughter survived, that’s all I’m saying,” the mother said. “And I pray for them in the hospital.”

She said her daughter wasn’t even gone an hour when she got the call about the shooting. She said she saw other parents in the emergency room.

“They need to go a little harder on the gun control, for real,” she said. “Because my daughter was innocent there, and her friend was innocent.”