92-Year-Old Bronx Woman Struck, Killed By Stray Bullet

NEW YORK (AP/1010 WINS)  -- The death of a 92-year-old woman hit by a bullet that ripped through the first-floor window of her home is another reason guns need to be removed from the streets, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Wednesday.


Raw Audio: Sharon Venroy, the daughter of 92-year-old Sadie Mitchell, describes her mother.


Carol D'Auria reports

Sadie Mitchell, who lived alone in the Williamsbridge section of the Bronx, died at a hospital Tuesday night after the shooting earlier that day. It was unclear whether Mitchell was the intended target, or whether she was struck by a stray bullet fired in possible gunplay on her street.

"What a sick world we have. We've just got to get guns off the streets,'' said Bloomberg, a strong advocate of gun control. Mitchell's death "tugs at your heart,'' he said.

A woman who answered the phone Wednesday at Mitchell's house identified herself as a daughter but said she was too distraught to talk.

Mary Fields, a neighbor, said she had talked to Mitchell on the phone Tuesday before the East 224th Street shooting. Shortly after they hung up, Mitchell called again late that afternoon to say she had been shot, Fields said.

"I couldn't believe it,'' Fields said. "I said, 'What do you mean you've been shot?'''

She and her husband, John, went to Mitchell's house and found her on the floor bleeding, Fields said. Mitchell was taken by ambulance to Jacobi Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead at 9:30 p.m., police said.

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. said Mitchell died "inside a place that was supposed to be safe, her house, and became one more victim of gun-wielding criminals.''

No arrests have been made. The shooting remains under investigation.

 Inset top: Sadie Mitchell/CBS TV

Inset bottom: A bullet hole in the glass of the first floor window at Mitchell's home/John Montone