An 8-year-old boy shot and wounded in the Bronx was struck by a stray bullet just moments after he got off his school bus, cops said Wednesday — as the alleged gunman was hit with attempted murder charges.
The child was walking with his grandmother — who lives across the street from the bus stop in Mott Haven – when the errant slug hit him in the leg around 5 p.m. Tuesday, police said.
He went by private means to Lincoln Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition, cops said.
Police said Tuesday that two people had been taken into custody at the site of the shooting on Beekman Avenue near East 141st Street.
But cops confirmed Wednesday that only Joshua Brooks, 27, had been charged in connection to the gun violence.
Investigators are probing whether the shooting that wounded the innocent bystander was retaliation for a prior beef, or gang-related, police sources said.
It remained unclear Wednesday who the intended target of the broad-daylight violence was.
In addition to the attempted murder rap, Brooks was also charged with assault, assault on a person less than 11 years old, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a firearm, cops said.
He was awaiting arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court on Wednesday.
The boy was not the first child shot in the borough this summer.
A 5-year-old girl was struck by a stray bullet in the back while she sat in a parked car in the Olinville section at the end of June.
