SYRACUSE — Police were still sorting out details Thursday from a confrontation between two 17-year-olds the night before that led to one teen and the mother of the other being shot by the same bullet.
About 6 p.m. Wednesday, a woman and her 17-year-old son believed that another 17-year-old boy was trying to break into their house, said Syracuse police detective Erin Behm. The boy had been walking around the house and looking in the windows, Behm said.
The two teen boys know each other, she said, but it was unclear Thursday how they were associated or if they had any type of ongoing dispute.
The mother called her husband, who was just down the street. When he arrived, he saw the teen boy looking in the windows, Behm said.
About the same time the father arrived home, the 17-year-old son came out to the front porch holding a gun, she said. At that point, there was a confrontation between the two boys, and a shot was fired, Behm said.
The mother was shot in the hand, and the boy who had been looking in the windows was shot in the arm, she said.
Based on initial information, investigators believe the mother may have been trying to get the gun away from her son or was trying to stop him from shooting when she was accidentally struck in the hand, Behm said. That bullet went through her hand and hit the other boy, who was standing in the yard, she said.
Both were taken to a local hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening. As of Thursday morning, no arrests had been made.