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A Brooklyn boardwalk bloodbath that killed a vivacious East Harlem teen and wounded five others was triggered by a skirmish with two suspected gang thugs, cops said yesterday.
“The incident erupts out of young adults getting into a beef on the beach,” said NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne.
The shots rang out late Thursday afternoon on the Brighton Beach boardwalk, where the sizzling temperatures had brought out large crowds, including thousands of students off for Brooklyn-Queens Day, a citywide school holiday.
Browne said there had been a scuffle in which one youth was hit over the head with a bottle and another was struck with a beach umbrella as hundreds of teens gathered.
As tempers cooled, one of the young men joined three friends — including Tysha Jones, 16, of East Harlem — on a boardwalk railing. Two other pals stood nearby.
Two thugs then strode onto the boardwalk and opened fire. Browne said it was unclear whom they were aiming at.
“It may turn out that the shooters have a gang affiliation,” he said.
Tysha, fatally struck by a bullet under her left arm, and a patron at the Tatiana restaurant, who was hit by a stray shot, were both innocent bystanders, Browne said.
“It’s likely neither of them . . . was targeted,” he said.
Tysha was declared dead at Coney Island Hospital.
Her dad, Kevin Wilson, 49, was devastated yesterday.
“My baby is not here . . . because somebody put a gun in their hand and thought they were in the wild, wild West,” he said outside the family home on Lexington Avenue.
Four others hit in the bullet hailstorm remained hospitalized, including one in critical condition at Coney Island Hospital.
Browne said cops had witnesses “in custody,” though no suspects.
Yet police began to draw a portrait of the shooters. One was described as a “chubby” 5-foot-9 man in a white T-shirt, and the other was thin in a light-colored tank.
Five bullet casing from a .380-caliber weapon were recovered.
Cops flooded the mostly empty beach yesterday and set up a “sky watch” tower at Brighton Sixth Street. Rewards were offered for tips.
“I just can’t believe my baby is gone!” Tysha’s mom, Cynthia Jones, told The Post yesterday.
Mayor Bloomberg lashed out yesterday at the staggering damage caused by illegal guns.
“It would be very helpful . . . if Congress would have some courage to stand up and just enforce the laws that are on the books,” he said.
Additional reporting by Lorena Mongelli