Wounded teens hid on Rep. Lee Zeldin's property after drive-by shooting
SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y. - Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin's home in Shirley became part of a crime scene on Sunday afternoon when someone shot two teens right in front.
The victims — two 17-year-old boys — are expected to recover, authorities said.
A mark from the bullet that grazed the wooden fence outside is still visible from the street.
The Long Island congressman and his wife were on the way home from a Columbus Day parade in the Bronx just after 2 o'clock when he got a call from one of his twin 16-year-old daughters, who locked themselves in a bathroom and called 911.
"I definitely did not think the next time that I'd be standing in front of crime scene tape would be in front of my own house," Zeldin said. "They're sitting there doing their homework at a kitchen table and there was gunfire that went off around them. They didn't know if these people were trying to get into the house."
Police told FOX 5 NY that it was a drive-by shooting with no apparent connection to the GOP nominee.
Security cameras caught two teenage victims hiding under his front porch.
One of the bullets landed just 30 feet from where Zeldin's daughters were sitting.
"The two people who shot were laying down just 10 feet from where they were sitting," he said. "One person was lying down right underneath the porch and another person was just a couple of feet away lying underneath a bush."
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison stopped short of providing a motive but said he sees too many guns on the street.
"As a police department, we got to do better," Harrison said. "We got to get guns out of these individuals' hands, making sure we're holding people accountable."
The victims are from Mastic and Mastic Beach. Their wounds were not considered life-threatening, authorities said.
On Fox and Friends Monday morning, Zeldin fired back at critics who accused him of using the shooting to campaign.
"All across the state in the last week and a half we've had people who have gotten murdered," Zeldin said. "This is a reality we should be confronting head on."
Zeldin has made public safety a priority of his campaign promising to crack down on crime.
Neighbor Tonya Vasquez hopes more will be done to cut down on crime.
"It's scary, I have kids, for me, I worry about them, worry about what they're growing up in," she said.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said she is pleased Zeldin's family is safe and that what happened a reminder that we all have to work together to get guns off the street.
Anyone with information related to the shooting to call the SCPD tip line at 800-220-TIPS.