The mother of a 13-year-old boy who was left on life support after he was shot in the head outside of a Dunkin’ Donuts in Queens is still praying for a miracle that the teenager will recover.
Sanjay Samuel, a student at Martin Van Buren High School, is “brain dead” after he was shot outside the coffee shop in Cambria Heights while walking to school on Monday morning, according to his mother, Vilene Griffith.
“Miracles do happen, and I’m trusting God for Sanjay to get up,” she told CBS New York of her hoops-playing son who dreamed of becoming a firefighter.
“Nothing is going on. He’s not breathing on his own. He’s not doing nothing,” she said.
Witnesses told The Post that the youthful-looking gunman pulled up to the restaurant on a scooter and got into a short fight with Samuel before he took out a gun and shot him.
The suspect, who had an afro and was carrying a distinctive “JAWS” bookbag, then ran off, police sources said.
Sanjay was rushed to Cohen Children’s Medical Center for treatment of his life-threatening gunshot wound. The teen’s father told the New York Daily News that the bullet is still lodged in the back of his son’s head.
“We asked them if they could do the surgery to remove the bullet,” Theophilus Samuel said. “They said, ‘No, that could make it worse.’”
The motive for the shooting remained under investigation — but a 14-year-old classmate said she believes the typically “friendly” student may have recently fallen in with the wrong crowd.
“It might have been the group he was with … I don’t know if it was his friends, I just knew it was a little situation that happened that was way before. Not today,” the teenager told The Post, without divulging further.
No arrests have been made and police have not identified the shooter, whom Sanjay’s father blasted as a “coward.”
“How can you live with this? At the moment, you’re probably hyped. But as time goes by, you have to think … ‘I took another person’s life,’” Samuel said.
Griffith wanted to ask the suspect why he shot her son — a basketball player who wanted to be a firefighter when he grew up.
Sanjay had just graduated from middle school earlier this year.
“I lost my son, and your mom lost you, also,” she said.
