Man Charged With Firing Stray Bullet That Wounded Boy, 7, In Paterson, N.J.
PATERSON, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- A man was charged Friday night with firing the shot that struck a 7-year-old boy inside his home in Paterson, New Jersey.
Justin Pope, 29, of Paterson, was charged with attempted murder, weapons offenses, and possession of a defaced firearm in the Feb. 29 incident, Paterson police said.
Second grader Jaiden DeLeon was struck in the shoulder that night when gunfire erupted outside his home on Rosa Parks Boulevard. Police say there was some sort of commotion out on the street near a liquor store when someone pulled out a gun and started firing.
The boy's aunt said in December that if he had been hit just a few inches lower, he would not have survived.
"My grandmother and my mother were in the house, the kids were playing in the living room and six shots were fire, one of which struck his shoulder right above his heart," said the boy's aunt, Jennifer Rodriguez, who had just left the apartment. "He did recognize that something came in through window, he wasn't sure what it was."
After he was shot, Jaiden bravely called 911 himself. He was taken to St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center and has since recovered, police said.
His family has been affected twice by gun violence. They are related to 12-year-old Genesis Rincon, who was fatally shot while riding her scooter on Rosa Parks Boulevard in 2014.
