Gunman on scooter missed intended victim; killed 11-year-old girl, police say

NEW YORK - Police were searching for the person who fired a gun on a busy street striking and killing Kyhara Tayl, 11, in the Longwood section of the Bronx. The gunman was on a scooter and missed his intended target.

Kyhara was with family near Westchester Avenue and Fox Street when gunfire erupted at about 4:50 p.m. Monday striking her in the abdomen, police said. The girl then ran into a nail salon where she passed out, according to witnesses.

Two men on a scooter were chasing another man who was running away on foot, police said. One man on the scooter opened fire at the man on the street but missed, Assistant Chief Philip Rivera said at a news conference.

"The passenger on the scooter began to shoot at the male," Rivera said. "One round traveled down Fox Street and struck an 11-year-old, who was standing in front of 993 Fox Street."

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Officers who responded to the shooting helped get the girl into an ambulance, which rushed her to Health and Hospitals/Lincoln in critical condition, Rivera said. 

A few hours later, the NYPD said the girl had died. 

The men on the scooter and the man who was fleeing them got away. Police are hoping to identify and find them. Assistant Chief Timothy McCormack said police will try to track down the scooter but it is "extremely difficult and time-consuming."

"It is troubling that this is happening in our society today, when the NYPD, we know how to fight crime and we're doing it with the best of our ability," McCormack said. "I think the other part of the criminal justice system need to step up and take the responsibility for what's going on."

A makeshift memorial was set up on Fox Street where people gathered to remember Kyhara.