Hunt for gunman after 2 teens shot near Mount Prospect Park

PROSPECT HEIGHTS (WABC) -- Police in Brooklyn are looking for whoever fired shots at a park that wounded two young teenagers.

Now the families of those two boys, ages 14 and 16, are speaking out and condemning what appears to be two kids shot by stray bullets.

"The first words that came out of my son's mouth were, 'Mom, I nearly didn't see you again,'" said Vonette Belfour-Murray, the victim's mother.

Belfour-Murray says the shock is indescribable. Her 16-year-old son, Aakif was struck three times. One bullet narrowly missed his heart.

"When I came to the hospital yesterday I passed out. That head doctor, that lady, she was so nice, she's a wonderful doctor, she said to me, 'Listen, you have to be strong for your son,'" Belfour-Murray said.

It happened shortly after 9 p.m. Sunday, as hundreds of people were attending a West Indian festival outside the Brooklyn Museum. Suddenly, someone opened fire in the crowd. Aakif's friend, Jovaughn Lewis, was also wounded.

Jovaughn's aunt, Kersha Thompson, is one of several relatives and family friends who accompanied the boys to the festival.

"I just hear pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, and everybody started running," Thompson said.

Thompson says Jovaughn was struck at least twice, with one bullet piercing the boy's liver.

In the pandemonium that followed, she says it was unclear who fired the shots or why. But she says she is convinced the boys would not have been the intended targets.

"They were in the wrong place at the wrong time," Thompson said.

"Talk to your kids, tell them every day that you love them. It is hard being a single parent and knowing this happened. It's very, very, hard," Belfour-Murray said.