The family of a 13-year-old boy shot in the head on a Queens street is praying for a miracle — even though doctors have told them he is unlikely to ever recover.
Sanjay Samuel was in a coma as his heart continued to beat Tuesday, a day after he was shot outside a Dunkin’ Donuts in Cambria Heights, his devastated father told the News in an exclusive interview from the hospital where his son is clinging to life.
Theophilus Samuel said the gunman’s bullet remains lodged in his son’s brain, which has swelled from the wound.
“We asked them if they could do the surgery to remove the bullet,” Samuel said. “They said, ‘No, that could make it worse.’”
Samuel said his son’s condition is dire and that doctors at Cohen Children’s Medical Center are giving the family a grim prognosis.
Samuel works in the linen department in a psychiatric wing at the same hospital.
“What they’re saying is, with the kind of condition he’s in, he’s not going to walk out of there,” Samuel said. “He’s not going to make it. That’s what they think.”
Nevertheless, the faithful father has told doctors to do everything possible to keep his son alive.
The family is not giving up.
“His heart’s still pumping,” Samuel said. “They ask us, ‘If something happens, do you want us to resuscitate? We say, ‘Yes.’”
“Our generation, you know, we believe in miracles,” he added. “God is everlasting.”
No arrests have been made in the shooting.
Although city leaders have touted a historic drop in shootings, Mayor Adams said gun access remains a threat to New York City and its young residents.
“There is nothing more devastating than yet another child becoming a victim of senseless gun violence,” Adams said in a social media post. “Our hearts ache with the family and friends of this 13-year-old who is fighting for his life because of this epidemic.”
Surveillance video shows the victim with about four friends in the strip mall parking lot near Springfield and Linden Blvds when a young gunman rolls up on a scooter, argues with the victim, pulls out a gun and shoots him, according to a worker at a local business who viewed the video.
A single shot was fired.
The shooting occurred on the same street that was renamed to honor Kevin Miller Jr. a 13-year-old boy killed by stray bullet fired by a suspected gang member at the same corner in 2009.
