By Adam Kramer
A 6-year-old Queens Village boy was jarred out of a deep sleep early Sunday when two stray bullets crashed through the wall of his bedroom and struck him in his right leg.
At the same time, his mother, Sharon Smith, 30, was jolted from her sleep as the gunshots rang out in front of her family’s Queens Village home at 112-46 207th St. about 5:30 a.m.
She returned to bed, but just as her head was about to hit the pillow, her stepson, Julio Ross, 15, burst through her bedroom door carrying her 6-year-old son, Paul Page, who was crying.
“I thought he was crying because of the loud noise, but he said his leg hurt,” said Smith, a supervisor at the Science and Business Library in Manhattan. “I pulled down his pajama pants and saw two holes in his leg and lost it.”
One bullet went straight through her son’s right thigh and the other grazed the same leg, leaving a burn mark.
Smith said her boyfriend, Stanford Ross, a nurse’s aide, called 911 while she got into her car to pursue two cars — one red and the other white — she had seen from her window when she was awakened by the noise.
She described driving around the neighborhood with one hand on the wheel and the other holding her cell phone, ready to dial 911 if she spotted the cars.
After returning home, she was told her son had been taken to Long Island Jewish Hospital in New Hyde Park, where he was treated and later released. Smith returned to the hospital with her son Tuesday to check if his wounds were healing.
Police at the 105th Precinct said they did not know who fired the shots and were still investigating. Police said there was another shooting in the neighborhood, but they had not determined whether the two shootings were related.
Smith expressed bewilderment over the incident.
“I have never heard gunshots on this block,” she said. “Years ago we used to hear them far away up on the main avenues, but not on this street. Never any so close.
“I am still really in shock about it and thankful nothing more happened,” she said. “It could have been worse.”
She said that for years her son had slept facing the opposite direction with his head next to the window. Only recently was she able to break him of the habit.
Because of Page’s asthma and allergies, she did not want him sleeping with his head near the window where there was a draft, Smith said.
“Every night when I went to bed I would switch him back,” Smith said. “It has only been recently that he has switched direction. Oh, my God, it is a good thing. I thank God every day.”
Smith said her son, who will attend first grade at Stepping Stone School this fall, is handling the whole trauma very well but had a bit of a breakdown Tuesday morning when “reality kicked in. Otherwise he is in good spirits.”
Reach reporter Adam Kramer by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 157.
