A 3-year-old boy was shot in a Brooklyn playground yesterday after getting caught in the middle of a shootout over a dice game, law-enforcement sources said.
Isaiah Rivera was playing in a sprinkler with other kids in the courtyard of the Roosevelt Houses on Pulaski Street in Bed-Stuy when he was struck in the leg as about 10 bullets flew, cops and witnesses said.
“I saw the mother running and crying like she was in a panic,” said a neighbor, who identified herself as Jennifer.
At Kings County Hospital, where the boy was taken, his shaken dad, José Rivera, said, “He’s going to be OK. He didn’t cry. He’s a strong kid.”
Rivera, 27, relived the horror of learning Isaiah had been shot: “I froze. My first thought was, ‘Oh, my God, my son is dead.’ ”
Isaiah’s godmother, Krystle Gonzalez, said the little boy’s 7-year-old brother witnessed the shooting.
“His brother was shouting, ‘My brother! My brother! He’s bleeding!’ ” Gonzalez said.
Family friend Jorge Durant, 56, said Isaiah’s mom is pregnant and “about to give birth.”
Law-enforcement sources said the gunplay was all over a dice game nearby.
“People were screaming and ducking all over the courtyard,” said a witness, Carlos Diaz, 51.