Exclusive: East Harlem family discovers bullet holes in 12-year-old daughter's bedroom

Nina Pineda Image
Tuesday, March 13, 2018
Family finds bullet holes in child's window
Nina Pineda has the exclusive story on bullet holes found in a child's window.

EAST HARLEM, Manhattan (WABC) -- In an Eyewitness News exclusive, an alarming and dangerous discovery at a NYCHA apartment complex in Manhattan as a family discovered bullet holes in their young daughter's bedroom.

"I was cleaning my daughter's windows and I realized it looked like gunshots in there," said father Felix Bermudez.

He now fears for his daughter's life after discovering two holes in both her bedroom windows.

"Like somebody shoot the window, like a bullet came through," Felix said. "I wasn't sure what it was."

12-year-old Amina, an honors student in the 7th grade, was studying on her bed when her mother heard what she thought was hail.

"I was there helping her and then we heard like tapping on the window, like ice hitting the window," said mother Bibi Bermudez.

"A little bit scared and I felt upset because people shouldn't be doing that out here," Amina said.

Amina had just put the finishing touches on her bedroom after not being able to use it for a decade. The family says NYCHA neglected leaks and mildew for years, but finally fixed the issues last week and now this.

"This is not supposed to happen in my kids room, you know it's very terrifying for me and her," Felix said. "How am I going to put her to sleep? If anything happens to her, me knowing this, I'm going to feel like it's my fault."

They believe someone fired a weapon from either the overpass or the building across from their own. But they don't know how they managed to strike windows on the fifth floor.

The East River Houses have flood lights powered by generators that are situated in common areas, including one on the side where the Bermudez family believes multiple windows were damaged in the same way.

Officers with the 23rd Precinct responded to pictures of the window and inspected the courtyard below. Right now they're not certain what exactly caused the holes. But they're hoping if anyone saw or heard anything suspicious over the weekend, they would contact the NYPD.