Mother of 6 shot trying to break up fight
A 41-year-old woman was shot in the head as she tried to break up a fight between neighbors in the hallway of her East Harlem building Wednesday, according to police.
The gunman and another resident got into an argument in the hallway on the sixth floor of a building in the Lincoln Houses on E. 135th St. near Park Ave. outside victim Jemina Garay’s apartment, cops and witnesses said.
When the gunman — who a neighbor said also lives on the floor — fired, he inadvertently hit Garay as she tried to break up the fight just after 10 a.m.
“All I heard was two pops over by the stairwell, but you know the difference between fireworks and gunshots,” said Shari McKoy, who lives on the fifth floor.
The gunman ran off, but police know who he is and are searching for him.
Medics rushed Garay to Harlem Hospital in critical condition.
“I’m not in a state of mind where I can deal with this,” Eric Garay, the victim’s husband, told the Daily News. “She is the very best.”
Garay has six children and works in animal control, a friend told The News.
“She’s all about her children, her family,” said Nicole Williams. “She don’t bother nobody, so for this to happen, she had to intervene in a situation that had nothing to do with her.”
Police were still investigating Wednesday night at the building.
Hours after the shooting, Garay’s father tried to confront the intended target, a woman with her 3-year-old daughter, as she was being escorted from the building by police. Cops separated the distraught father and the woman.
“She is a beautiful person,” Eric Garay said of the victim.