CBS2 Exclusive: 12-Year-Old Shot Playing Basketball Asks City To Improve Park Safety
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A boy shot while playing basketball is calling on the city to make parks safer for children and adults.
"I fell down, and I looked at my pants and I saw a hole in my leg," Isaiah Osborne recalled.
He wasn't talking about a rip in his pants. Osborne, just 12-years-old, was talking about a gun shot.
On Friday, he was playing basketball with some friends at Story Park in the Bronx when he was shot in the left hip.
Police don't believe Isaiah was the target.
Osborne spoke exclusively with CBS2 from a chair in his hospital room on Tuesday. He was accompanied by his mother as he described the terrifying situation he never thought he'd be in.
"We start hearing gun shots. I thought it was coming from the back of the school, but didn't know I got hit," he said. "I felt something come into my body, and my pants were wet."
His friends told him, "you got shot."
"After than I don't know what happened, because I was at surgery," he said.
For the last five days he's been recovering in the hospital, building up his strength.
On Tuesday morning, he was excited to be out of bed for the first time and relaxing in his chair.
With summer just around the corner, Isaiah is hoping that other parents will join his mom's mission to make area parks safer.
"Get cameras so they won't get away," he suggested.
CBS2 told the New York City Parks Department about Isaiah's wish to get surveillance cameras in and around the parks. They took the call and are looking into it.
"The one that got me is still on the run," Isaiah said.
Isaiah is expected to be out of the hospital in a few days. His goal is to be back on the court sooner rather than later -- hopefully with surveillance cameras in place.
The NYPD is still investigating the shooting, there have been no arrests.
