By Trevor Kapp, Theodore Parisienne, Alan Neuhauser
THE BRONX — A 4-year-old boy was struck by a stray bullet and killed and two men were shot when bullets started flying during a memorial basketball game at a Morrisania public housing complex Sunday night, the NYPD reported.
The gunfire erupted at a playground near the basketball court in the Forest Houses where Lloyd Morgan had been playing, police said. One of the bullets struck him in the head.
He was taken to Lincoln Hospital, where he died, police said.
The two men, ages 27 and 21, were shot in the abdomen and stomach. They went to Lincoln Hospital and St. Barnabas Hospital, where they were in stable condition, police said.
Morgan and his father, Lloyd Morgan Sr., lived in the Soundview section of The Bronx. (Lloyd Morgan Sr.)
It was unclear if they were bystanders or had been involved in the shooting.
More than 100 people had gathered at the basketball court, located at 735 E. 165th St., for the "First Annual Ghetto Angels Basketball Tournament."
The gathering was a memorial for a 15-year-old girl who was stabbed to death one year ago, police and news sources said.The game turned violent shortly before 9:40 p.m., when a man walked up to the court and started shooting, the Daily News and New York Post reported. One of the basketball players reportedly fired back, and both gunman fled.
No one has been arrested, police said.
Lloyd Morgan, 4, was struck and killed by a stray bullet Sunday night, July 22, 2012, the NYPD said. (BMR Breaking News)Morgan was the second young child to be shot on a city playground in two weeks. On July 8, stray bullets struck 3-year-old Isaiah Rivera in the legs as he played in an elephant-shaped spray shower in the Roosevelt Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Two men were arrested in connection with the shooting the next day. Rivera was released from the hospital that week.