NBC

7-Year-Old Boy Called 911 After Being Shot by Stray Bullet: Family

The barrage of gunshots Monday night sent neighbors running and ducking for cover, his family said

The 7-year-old boy struck and injured by a stray bullet while inside his home in Paterson, New Jersey Monday evening called 911 himself to report he'd been shot. 

Jayden Deleon was at home with his grandmother Monday night when gunshots rang out in the street, and a bullet pierced the window of his home on Rosa Parks Boulevard and tore into his shoulder, according to his family. 

His mother Diana Irizarri, who was out with her sister at the time, told NBC 4 New York partner station Telemundo-47 that a neighbor called to tell them police were rushing to her home.

"I called my mom and my mom is hysterical crying but I'm not understanding what she's saying because my sister is going crazy on the other side," Irizarri said in an exclusive interview Tuesday.

"I'm freaking out, and she told me 'he's OK, he's OK,'" she said. "I'm like, 'Who's OK?' And that's when she told me my son got shot." 

Irizarri later learned that her mother -- the boy's grandmother -- was distraught in the initial moments of the shooting.

"He kept on telling her, 'I'm hurt, I'm hurt, call the ambulance,'" she said. "She was hysterical crying, she didn't know what was going on, the calls weren't going through." 

"So he was like, 'Give me, mama, give me the phone and I'll do it," said Irizarri. "He made the call, he told 911 he was hurt, he had just gotten shot, to come quick." 

Irizarri rushed home, ran out of her car and went straight to the waiting ambulance outside her house, where her son was already inside. 

"The cop tried to calm me down, he said, 'Look, he's in there, he's being so brave, he hasn't cried. I don't want him to see you like this so he won't get hysterical,'" Irizarri recounted. 

So the mother went to collect some clothes from inside the house and followed her son to the hospital in another ambulance.

When she met her boy at St. Joseph's Medical Center, "he was so calm and collected," while she still felt frantic, Irizarri said. 

Police commended Jayden for staying cool and calling 911 and gave him a gift at the hospital. He was treated for the wound and released Tuesday. The bullet did not hit any muscle or bone, according to his mother.

His aunt Jennifer Rodriguez told NBC 4 New York that Jayden, a middle child, has been an honor student since kindergarten and that he loves reading and helps his brothers and sisters with homework. 

Prosecutors and police are investigating the shooting. They say six shots were fired and don't believe the boy was an intended target. 

Jayden's family has been touched by gun violence before: Two years ago, a second cousin to Jayden, 12-year-old Genisis Rincon, was struck in the head and killed by a stray bullet as she rode her scooter on Rosa Parks Boulevard, less than 100 feet from Jayden's home, according to Rodriguez. 

Irizarri said she knows "police try their best," but wants them to patrol the neighborhood more carefully and be more aggressive. 

"When you're not even safe in your house, I don't know," she said. 

Contact Us