By MARC RAIMONDI and DOUG AUER
A Queens star high school soccer player was left paralyzed when a cowardly thug shot him in the back outside a house party, police said.
Justin Thompson, 16, a straight-A junior at elite Molloy HS, was ambushed by a gun-toting group of punks who crashed the Cambria Heights bash at around 10 p.m. Friday Oct. 21, according to police.
There were no arrests in the case as of Tuesday evening.
Despite his condition, Thompson has remained optimistic.
“Got the bullet removed and got surgery today,” Thompson wrote on his Facebook page Oct. 25.
“Good news, the bullet only partly bruised my spinal cord so thanks for the support and keep praying, I’m doing well.”
More than 170 people wrote back, including family member Sha Remiatodiworld Thompson, who said, “Thank u god now I can finally sleep ‘n’ stop crying.”
Justin Thompson is a promising defender for the school’s soccer team.
“He’s a top-notch kid,” the school’s athletic director, Mike McCleary, told the New York Post.
“I don’t think he has an enemy in the whole world. What happened was, it was wrong place, wrong time.”
McCleary visited Thompson at Long Island Jewish Hospital.
“When I saw him I was fighting back tears,” he said. “To see that good a kid in that shape is a shame.”
Police said Thompson was standing with friends at 207th Street and 112th Avenue when the pack of troublemakers approached.
“We were heading home and then some gang of kids came around wanting to fight and just shot towards the group,” said one of Thompson’s friends..
McCleary said that when he visited Thompson, the teen’s biggest concern was whether his teammates won Saturday. They lost.
Thompson, whose family is from Jamaica, was honored at Saturday’s quarterfinals by his teammates, who wore armbands in the Caribbean nation’s colors.
