Brooklyn girl, 11, paralyzed after being hit in neck by stray bullet

NBC New York - An 11-year-old girl set to graduate from elementary school later this month is paralyzed from the neck down after she was hit by a stray bullet...

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NBC New York – An 11-year-old girl set to graduate from elementary school later this month is paralyzed from the neck down after she was hit by a stray bullet when she walked out of her home in Brooklyn Friday night, and a 17-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with the shooting, relatives and police say.

Tayloni Mazyck’s father said doctors told him it was too early to tell if the paralysis would be permanent.

Mazyck was waiting for her aunt outside her Bedford-Stuyvesant home around 8:30 p.m. when a gunman walking down the street opened fire at two men standing outside of another residence, police said.

A stray bullet pierced Mazyck’s throat, ricocheting down her spine before lodging in her back, the girl’s father says doctors told him.

Mazyck’s father said she underwent surgery at a hospital Friday night, but the bullet remains in her back.

Mazyck is scheduled to graduate from fifth grade at P.S. 44 this month. Her family says she loves math.

“Why, why my little sister?” the victim’s 15-year-old brother asked through tears Saturday. “Why the baby? It didn’t have to be her. Without her I don’t know where I would be. I love my little sister.”

He had arrived home just moments after the ambulance whisked his wounded sister away.

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