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Cops Believe S.I. Christmas Day Shooting Was A Result Of Mistaken Identity

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A minister and her teenage son were shot on Staten Island on Christmas Day in what may have been a case of mistaken identity.

As CBS2's Ali Bauman reported, police continued to search late Tuesday for the woman who shot them.

The minister and her grandson went to buy groceries for Christmas dinner, but a stranger started following them outside of a deli, and pulled out a gun.

The Christmas Day crime happened on Fillmore Street and Highview Avenue in the New Brighton section of Staten Island around 4 p.m. Police said 42-year-old Rev. Monique Hall and her 19-year-old son Dayvon were both shot through their car window by a woman who mistook them for someone else.

"Came out and he's sitting in the car, and the neighbors are out said to get a towel; to put it on a pressure point -- he's bleeding in his forehead, she's panicking for her son," said Hall's mother, Janice Watkins.

Dayvon was hit in the shoulder. A second bullet grazed his forehead, and another bullet grazed his mother's lower back after ricocheting off a book she had in her car.

"Whatever it is, it saved her life definitely," Watkins said. "She's in a lot of pain right now."

Watkins said they went out for last-minute groceries just before 3 p.m., before the family sat down for Christmas dinner. Police said a woman in a black sport-utility vehicle started following their car home, then pulled out a gun.

Investigators do not believe the mother and son were the intended targets.

"I don't even think they knew who they were," Watkins said. "It could have been the car or what, nobody knows, but they will be caught. They will be caught."

Family members said Dayvon is a smart and honest son. His mother is beloved in the neighborhood for her volunteer work with the church.

"She's awesome. That's about all I could tell you about her. She's awesome," Watkins said.

Police said the suspect drove away immediately after shooting. The victims' family is relieved that neither of their injuries were even worse.

"I'm so glad nothing happened to my family," Watkins said. "I'm glad that's it."

Bauman spoke with the minister at the hospital. She has been released, but is staying with her son, who she says may need surgery to remove the bullet.

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