The mother of a 28-year-old woman hit by a stray bullet while sitting in her car on the Lower East Side over the weekend blasted New York City crime as “ridiculous” on Monday.
Jessica Alvarez, 46, said her “heart dropped” when she found out her daughter, Samantha Pichardo, was a victim of a brazen daylight-hours shooting Saturday.
“As an innocent bystander sitting in your car … and then all the sudden you are hit? That’s terrible,” Alvarez told The Post from her Manhattan apartment.
Police and law enforcement sources said Pichardo was parked at Orchard Street near Stanton Street, waiting to get ice cream, at around 7 p.m. when she was randomly struck in the arm.
She was hospitalized in stable condition and treated for the wound.
Alvarez said her daughter heard arguing shortly before the shots rang out.
“I’m just lucky as a prayer warrior that she was alive to still be here and speak to the officers,” Alvarez said of her daughter, who is a mother-of-two.
“She’s, of course, in a little pain and stuff but she’s doing OK,” Alvarez added.
“It’s ridiculous,” she said about city crime.
Police said Pichardo wasn’t the intended target of the violence.
Cops are looking for a four-door SUV believed to have been the source of the gunshots.
No suspects have been publicly identified.
