Three scooter-riding teens were shot as they headed to a quinceañera rehearsal in Brooklyn — as citywide gun violence claimed another man’s life and wounded two other victims late Monday, cops said.
The victims — two 17-year-olds and one 19-year-old — were riding a scooter on New Utrecht Avenue near 39th Street in Borough Park around 8:20 p.m. Monday when someone on another two-wheel vehicle apparently targeted them, cops said.
The wounded teens had just left a soccer game and were on their way to a rental hall on 40th Street for the practice run of a 15th birthday celebration when the shooter began trailing behind them and opened fire, police said.
“We have video that captures them riding on the scooter and the perp is observed following behind them,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Tuesday. “The victims then drop their moped and they seek cover.”
Investigators initially thought the teens were struck by BB gun rounds, but they were shot with a .22 caliber gun, the police official said.
“We began our investigation treating it as if it was a shooting,” Kenny said. “Turns out it was.”
The victims were taken to Maimonides Medical Center, where they were listed in stable condition.
The motive for the violence was not immediately known.
The victims claimed they did not know the shooter, who was still on the loose Tuesday, cops said.
In a later shooting in Long Island City, Queens, Joseph Valdez, 25 — an ex-con who served more than five years in prison for attempted murder, records show — was killed when a rival opened fire during a clash outside a deli on 21st Street near 41st Avenue around 10 p.m., cops said.
The shooter whipped out a gun and shot Valdez twice in the torso and once in the right arm during the feud, steps away from the 21st Street-Queensbridge subway station, police said.
Valdez was taken to Weill Cornell Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
The suspect took off and had not been caught by Tuesday.
Valdez, who lived in the Inwood section of Upper Manhattan, has prior arrests for domestic violence, as well as criminal possession of a weapon, cops said.
Two more men were hurt around 10:30 p.m. in a separate shooting outside a dining strip that is part of the Gateway Center Mall on Erskine Street in the Spring Creek section of Brooklyn, cops said.
One of the victims, whose age was not known, was shot in the groin and taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition.
Another man, 23, was struck in the hip and taken to Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center, also in stable condition, police said.
The motive for that shooting also remains under investigation.
Meanwhile, the NYPD on Monday busted a 17-year-old boy in connection to the Aug. 9 broad-daylight Bronx shooting of a 16-year-old boy, cops said.
The teen shooter flashed a gun and let off multiple rounds, striking his victim in the shoulder around 4:20 p.m. on East 170th Street near the Grand Concourse in Mount Eden, police said.
The victim, who was not seriously hurt, went to Bronx Care Health System on his own for treatment.
The young gunman was in the wind until around 6:20 p.m. Monday, when he was arrested and charged with attempted murder, assault and criminal possession of a weapon, police said.
His name was not officially released because he is a minor.
The motive for that shooting remained unclear Tuesday.
