12-year-old girl shot, woman stabbed in brawl outside Queens NYCHA housing

JAMAICA, Queens (WABC) -- A brawl between a group of teenage girls in Queens left a 12-year-old child shot and another woman stabbed in the chest.

Police say the fight broke out after 8 p.m. outside the South Jamaica Houses on 160th Street.

The girl who was shot was with her 18-year-old sister who was making a run to get juice from a store near their home.

As the 18-year-old walked past a group of young women on the sidewalk outside the South Jamaica Houses, someone in the group approached her.

A brawl erupted between one of those women in the group and the 18-year-old, who quickly got the upper hand.

More girls then started attacking her, and she was punched and kicked in the head, police said.

At one point, a 25-year-old woman involved was stabbed in the chest.

The fight broke up when two men arrived and one fired shots in their direction, but from a distance. It is unclear why he fired the shots.

The 12-year-old girl was shotin her left arm. She was taken to Cohen Children's Medical Center. She has since been released from the hospital and is doing OK.

The woman who was stabbed and the 18-year-old, who had lacerations to the head, both went to Jamaica Hospital and were said to be stable.

A woman who lives near the scene described what she witnessed of the dispute.

"It's crazy, I've been here too many years to hear something. I've never heard this before," she said. "The people who was out there need, they need to move them out of here. The ones who were shooting."

Jaylin Santos is a senior case manager at the nearby Queens Community Justice Center which works to deter people in the community from turning to crime.

"Young people getting shot, stabbed, not going to school, getting arrested, robbing, it's pretty common around here," Santos said.

Police say the two men who opened fire fled the scene in a black Hyundai.

The mother of the two sisters said she has no idea who those men could be - and that the other young women involved lives in a neighboring building.

An investigation is ongoing.