Boy, 15, shot on Queens subway by rival teen is paralyzed, on life support: family 61%
By Kerry Burke36% Emma Seiwell55% Colin Mixson68%
4/29/2026, 1:55:36 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 24 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Authority, Appeal to Emotion, and Negativity Bias, with Unattributed Quote as the most egregious example at 34.4% saturation with 290 hits. Analysis detected 1,854 faulty-reasoning hits from 842 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 56.6% and a BS Rank of 61% (6,691 of 16,813 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 60.20% of the article peer group.
A 15-year-old boy shot in the neck by a rival teen on a Queens subway train was left paralyzed and is on a ventilator — with his family worried he may never fully recover.
The victim was shot in the neck and back while riding the A train approaching the 80th St. station in Ozone Park about 6 p.m.
Monday, cops said.
“He’s on a ventilator.
He’s paralyzed,” the teen’s mother told the Daily News Wednesday.
The heartbroken mother didn’t want to be identified, fearing for her family’s safety.
“He is conscious.”
One of the bullets in Monday’s shooting hit the teen’s spine, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down, his mother said.
As the family keep vigil by his bedside, the teen is able to communicate only through handwritten notes.
“He’s responsive.
He writes on papers,” she said.
“That’s how we’re communicating.
(As of) yesterday.”
The near-fatal shooting has left the family “devastated,” the victim’s great uncle, 70-year-old Carl Winston, told the Daily News.
“We’re going through a whole lot right now,” Winston said.
“There was a fight and he was shot (multiple) times,” he added.
“He’s on a respirator, a breathing machine.
If they take him off the machine he might die.”
Even if he survives, the boy’s prognosis is grim, Winston says.
“He was hit in the spine and he’s going to be paralyzed from the waist down,” he said.
“We hope he comes out of it, but his mom doesn’t think so.”
It was the second time the teen had been wounded in a shooting this year.
The victim was struck in the left leg on Feb. 7 during a clash inside a building on Everdell Ave. not far from his family’s former home in Far Rockaway, police sources said.
“He was shot one time in the leg by the same guys before,” the victim’s great uncle confirmed.
Police arrested a 15-year-old boy in March and charged him in the February shooting but the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office declined to prosecute after the victim refused to testify.
On Monday, investigators believe the victim confronted the suspect from the February shooting after running into him on the Manhattan-bound A train, sources said.
The suspect was armed but did not pull his weapon at first, police sources said.
The two teens fought until the suspect’s friend grabbed the suspect’s weapon and opened fire, the sources said.
The victim was rushed to Jamaica Hospital.
“This was an unacceptable incident,” Mayor Mamdani said in a statement Monday.
“Violence like this has no place on our subway system, and my administration is committed to doing everything in our power to make every New Yorker — especially children — safe on their daily commutes.”
The victim is the second oldest of five siblings, with two brothers and two sisters.
His uncle said he was a once promising student.
“He was a good kid but he started turning bad,” said Winston.
“He started hanging out and not going to school.
That was years ago.”
Law enforcement sources say the victim has been linked to multiple robbery patterns and has a criminal record that includes numerous arrests.
Monday’s shooting caused a mass panic on the subway car with straphangers stampeding towards the exits as the train entered the station.
“It was pandemonium.
Everybody just took off running, man.
Including the two guys, the teenagers that were fighting,” witness Junior White told ABC7 New York.
“We all jumped onto the floor and stayed below and the doorman opened the doors up and some people ran out.”
The shooting comes as the NYPD fights teen gun violence.
So far this year through April 19, 29 of the city’s 201 shooting victims have been under 18 making up 14% of the victims, according to the NYPD.
At the same time, 28 people either identified or arrested for a shooting have been under 18 so far this year.
Last year, 120 shooting victims were under 18, about 14% of the 856 people in the five boroughs wounded by gunfire, cops said.
The NYPD is hoping to bring that number down by increasing patrols around schools.
At the beginning of the school year, the NYPD created Youth Safety Zones, where more police personnel are put in areas where teens face the most risk — commuter corridors, bus stops, and routes to and from school.
Since these Youth Safety Zones were put in place, shooting incidents in the corridors were down by 56%, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
“These youth zones focus on the places where young people are most likely to fall victim to a crime,” Tisch said.
“We are seeing real results.”
Cops on Tuesday released images of the suspected shooter in Monday’s clash, describing him as a teen with braids, a medium build and a medium complexion.
He was wearing all black clothing and gray sneakers.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.
All calls will be kept confidential.
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