Boy, 16, shot outside Bx. elementary school

A 16-year-old boy was shot just outside a Bronx playground next to an elementary school Thursday, police and sources said.

The teen was shot in the buttocks near the entrance to the basketball courts of the playground at Public School 49 Willis Ave. School near the corner of E. 140th St. and Alexander Ave. in Mott Haven around 4:25 p.m., they added.

Two male shooters fled on foot and ditched a gun about five blocks away, police sources said.

A local man heard multiple shots from a nearby store. When he walked over to the scene, he saw the teen lying on the steps of the school entrance.

“Everybody was standing watching him,” the man, who only wanted to be identified as Ben, told the Daily News. “He was bleeding from his leg. He’s lucky he’s alive.”

The victim was rushed to Harlem Hospital, where he was expected to recover. There were no immediate arrests.

“It’s horrible,” said Marysol Ortiz, a mother who lives near the playground. “I have two little kids here, so for something to happen right next door, it’s sad. It’s sad it happens so often.

The shooting came amid a bloody week for schools in the city, which prompted the NYPD to increase its presence across Manhattan in an effort to stem the violence.

On Tuesday, three gang-related shootings shook students in Upper Manhattan, which first saw a 17-yearold boy shot at Martin Luther King Jr. High School on the Upper West Side.

Cheick Coulibalys, 19, was arrested as he tried to flee in a yellow cab and charged with attempted murder, assault, criminal use of a firearm and criminal possession of a weapon, officials said.

Shortly after, a 16-year-old and a 27-year-old bystander were both hit with bullets outside the Harlem Renaissance School in East Harlem.

Coulibalys was a student at the East Harlem school, sources said.

Bullets then flew at 105th St. and Park Ave., with four shell casings found at the scene, but no reports of injuries near a third school. There have been no arrests in the latter two incidents.

The NYPD called for multiple resources from other boroughs to assist in the Manhattan mayhem, Chief of Patrol John Chell said at Tuesday.

Officers from transit, housing and school safety units were deployed to areas police believed to be at risk of more shootings. The mobilization continued through school dismissal Wednesday.

That day, a 14-year-old stabbed a 15-year-old boy twice in the leg at the Inwood Academy of Leadership Charter School. All of the victims survived the attacks.