ELIZABETH — It was a sudden flash of gunfire between two rival street gangs in Plainfield, but the only person wounded was a 5-year-old boy who was shot in the face while walking home from school with his mother last January.
Now an 18-year-old man - who authorities say belongs to the 18th Street gang - faces 16 years in prison after admitting in court to shooting the child on Plainfield Avenue last Jan. 12, acting Union County Prosecutor Grace Park said today.
Appearing in Superior Court in Elizabeth before Judge Thomas Walsh on Monday, Jose Rodriguez of North Plainfield pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted murder, Park said.
When Rodriguez is sentenced on Jan. 10, assistant prosecutors James Tansey and Julie Peterman will recommend Rodriguez receive the 16-year term and that he serve 85 percent of the sentence before becoming eligible for parole, authorities said.
Tansey and Peterman said that on the day of the shooting, members of the 18th Street gang and the MS-13 gang passed each other in the 300 block of Plainfield Avenue and flashed opposing gang signs.
Rodriguez pulled out a handgun and fired shots at the MS-13 members, missing them but wounding the boy in the face, with the bullet lodging in his spine, prosecutors said.
Rodriguez was arrested two days later following an investigation by Plainfield police and the Union County Homicide Task Force.
The boy was in a hospital for weeks before being released and sent home to his parents, Park said.
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