A Brooklyn couple whose son drowned three years ago were devastated Friday when their daughter was shot while walking home from school.
Star student Tamia Tucker, 14, was hit in the leg at Sutter and Euclid Aves. at 3:30 p.m. The teen was listed in stable condition Friday night at Kings County Hospital, recovering from the wound to her left thigh.
Tamia’s parents, Lloyde and Charisse Tucker, lost their 17-year-old son, Tevin Tucker, to an accidental drowning in a swimming pool on a family vacation to Niagara Falls.
“I thank God she’s okay,” said Charisse Tucker, 45, of Cypress Hills Houses. “I couldn’t stand to lose another child. She’s a straight-A student. She didn’t deserve this.”
Tamia, a ninth-grader at Benjamin Banneker Academy in Fort Greene, was shot by a teenager wearing black pants and a black hooded sweatshirt, officials said. The shooter was aiming for another person, dressed in white pants and a blue hoodie, when he fired.
Lloyde Tucker, a carpet salesman, got the terrifying call while he was at work that his daughter had been rushed to the hospital.
“She’s only 14; she’s only a little girl on her way home from school,” said the 53-year-old dad. “How could this happen? These jackasses with guns out on the street, they can’t even shoot one another.”
Witnesses said they saw the shooter chase another man when he fired and missed his target. Cops believe the attempted hit was gang-related, a police source told the Daily News.
The target managed to escape, witnesses said.
As Tamia, who has two older brothers and a younger sister, cried out in pain after she was struck, a passerby stopped and tied his scarf around her leg to staunch the bleeding.
“The little girl was screaming, ‘My leg! My leg! God, please don’t take me! Don’t let my mother lose another child! Don’t let me die!'” witness Tamara Camerau, 39, recalled. “She was really scared. She was just hysterical. I don’t let my kids walk these streets, and this is why.”
Detectives retrieved video footage showing the suspect running east on Sutter Ave., through a gas station. He is described as an 18- to 20-year-old black male, approximately 5-foot-9 and weighing about 170 pounds.
Investigators were still searching for the gunman Friday night.
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