By Jeremy Walsh
A girl who may be as young as 11 was hospitalized Saturday after being stabbed in a fight at a South Ozone Park playground by a boy around the same age, neighbors and news reports said.
Between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. at the Frederick B. Judge Playground on 111th Avenue, the girl, who the Breaking News Network reported was 13 but the New York Post later said was 11, got into a dispute with a boy, possibly over a bicycle.
The boy, whose age in reports varied from 9 to 13, allegedly pulled out a large knife and stabbed the girl in the back, according to BNN.
The girl fled the scene with a group of kids in chase, neighbors said. She ran up 133rd Street and into a two−story home, where a resident was just walking out the door to visit her mother.
“She ran into the house,” said the woman, who asked not to be named. “I couldn’t do anything but follow her into the house. She was bleeding. I got her a chair and called 911.”
But as soon as they were inside, the woman said, a boy with a knife burst in after them. Her husband chased the boy back outside without using force, the woman said.
“He did not look aggressive,” she said about his demeanor.
Neighbors in a nearby house said that after the girl ran passed, they saw the boy walking south back toward the park with a taller boy, who was berating him.
“He had a chain and he took him and hit him right across the head with it,” a teenage neighbor, who declined to give his name, said of the older boy. “I’ve never seen them on the block before.”
Police arrested the boy and charged him with assault, the Post reported. The girl was taken to Jamaica Hospital where she was listed in stable condition, the Post said.
Reach reporter Jeremy Walsh by e−mail at jewalsh@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718−229−0300, Ext. 154.
