Vic: ‘I forgive them’
Brooklyn senior hit by stray bullet on bus
A Brooklyn senior citizen, after narrowly dodging death when a bullet grazed her face on a moving city bus, holds no grudge against the two teen fugitives wanted in the shooting.
“I forgive them,” said 70-yearold Lydia Flores said Saturday as the NYPD hunt for the suspects continued. “I was on the bus. It was an accident. I know it was an accident. I forgive them.”
Flores spoke at a Brooklyn event where various clergy members and community leaders called for an end to the gun violence that nearly took her life. Several shots were fired Tuesday as the city bus rode through Brooklyn, with Flores in her seat as blood dripped down her face after the brush with mortality.
“My being alive is a miracle because of how the bullet hit,” said
Flores, speaking in Spanish as her son Luey Rivera translated. “Thank God ... I was praying, [asking] God to give me the strength because I knew I was bleeding so much.”
Cops said the two young suspects remained on the streets after fleeing the scene of Tuesday’s shooting as Flores rode through Bedford-Stuyvesant on a B25 bus. The shots were apparently fired from a block away as the bus drove along Fulton St. near Brooklyn
Ave., with its driver pulling over as Flores announced, “Oh my God! I’m shot in my head!”
A 29-year-old pedestrian was also struck in the leg when the bullets started flying around 2:30 p.m., police said.
“This is not a political moment,” said the Rev. Robert Waterman in calling for peace. “This is a prayer moment. This is a time that we are supposed to be giving thanks. Coronavirus has done enough damage to families, and now we have to deal with violence on the streets.”
Her son recalled getting the call about the shooting at his home in the Bronx and rushing to Kings County Hospital.
“She was in surgery getting stitched up,” remembered the 42-year-old Rivera. “She just told me, ‘Hey, I’m OK.’ She smiled, and there she is. She was fine. It was a sigh of relief. When you hear your mom gets shot in the head, in the middle of the day, on a bus, you think the worst.”
Rivera said he was looking forward to a Thanksgiving with his family intact: “Right now, we have a lot to be thankful for.”
Flores made sure to thank everyone involved in getting her help, from the bus driver to the police to the EMS and hospital workers.
“I’m doing much better, thank God,” she said. “I hope the community can come together and help these kids, and take the weapons off the street.”