Boy, 12, is shot in the chest on a Brooklyn street as NYC gun crime continues to spiral with a 77% increase in shootings

 A 12-year-old boy was shot in the chest on a Brooklyn street Saturday night in another grim statistic in New York City's sharply worsening rate of gun crime.

He is expected to survive, the New York Post reports. 

The incident comes as shootings have increased 77 percent over the past year, as of March statistics, according to the New York Police Department.

The boy was walking in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn just before 10 p.m. on Saturday when he came across two groups fighting.

He heard gunfire, the Post reports, but didn't realize he'd been hit until he felt pain in his chest. 

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A 12-year-old boy in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn was taken away in ambulance Saturday night after he was shot in the chest. He is expected to survive

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A swarm of police cars scrambled to the scene in the wake of the shooting. It wasn't clear whether the boy was associated with the two groups that were fighting, or if he was a target or if it was simply a random shooting as he was walking by

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The boy ducked into a liquor store, above, to ask a worker for help. The worker called 911

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The liquor store in daylight hours from a Google street view shows the area where the boy was shot and the store where he ducked in to ask for help. The incident is under investigation

It's not clear if he was associated with either of the groups, or if he was a target. 

The boy, who hasn't been identified by police because he is a minor, entered into a liquor store where he asked a worker for help.

The NYPD was investigating, as of Saturday night, but hasn't made arrests.

The Post reported that police found at least five shell casings at the scene near Malcolm X Boulevard and Madison Street. They also were looking for any video captured on security cameras.

Meanwhile, the shooting comes as the NYPD reported 99 shooting incidents in March 2021, compared to 56 a year ago, representing an increase of nearly 77 percent, even as police drastically stepped up their efforts to arrest suspects on weapons charges.

There were 492 gun arrests citywide last month, which is an increase of nearly 67 percent compared to March 2020.

The 12-year-old's shooting comes after several random acts of violence in New York in recent weeks, including a man from Kansas who was shot near Times Square earlier this week and a 75-year-old who was punched in broad daylight on Easter Sunday.