An innocent 55-year-old man who was shot on his way to work in Brooklyn says he may never fully recover after falling victim to Gotham’s epidemic of senseless gun violence.
Phillips was heading back to his office just before 4 p.m. Wednesday when a y bullet cut through the window of his work van as he crossed Eastern Parkway while heading north on Rochester Avenue in Crown Heights.
“I see the glass shatter and I felt a lot of pain in my chest,” Desmond Phillips told The Post Thursday.
“I put my hand on my jacket, and I see a lot of blood coming out.”
The gunshot victim was recovering Thursday at Brooklyn University Hospital where he was suffering from a collapsed lung and still had the bullet lodged in his chest.
“[The bullet] narrowly missed my heart. I pray every, I thank God,” he said.
Phillips family decried the latest act of gun violence in the Big Apple where shootings still remain up more than 65% compared to before the pandemic.
“It’s ridiculous. It’s madness,” Phillips’ cousin, Nicole Avril, told The Post Thursday about the broad-daylight shooting.
“You can’t go anywhere without somebody shooting or worrying about somebody pushing you on the tracks,” said Avril, 49. “You can’t go anywhere or do anything without your head flipping back and forth looking over your shoulder who’s coming.”
Police believe the shooter, who was walking with a woman, was targeting a group of four men when he opened fire — but missed his mark, sending the bullet flying through the uninvolved driver’s window.
55-year-old Desmond Phillips was shot in Crown Heights on his way to work.
The suspect shooter then ran off, disappearing into the Crown Heights-Utica Avenue subway station.
Phillips was shot in the chest and rushed to the hospital, where he told The Post he expected to be released in a few days. But his doctors have told him that they couldn’t guarantee a full recovery.
Phillips, a father of four from Grenada, owns Phillips Carpenters & Cleaning in Crown Heights, which his daughter said he’s built up over 20 years of hard work.
“I was helping my mother wrap Christmas presents for his grandson when we got the call,” Diandra Phillips said, adding her dad is still in the hospital with a bullet lodged in his chest.
“The doctor said it will cause him more trouble if they take it out — take the bullet out of his chest,” the 24-year-old said.
“He is shocked,” Diandra said of her dad, who was on his way to a job when he was shot. “He said it happened so suddenly… it caught him off guard.
The shooter was aiming for four other males when he inadvertently struck the driver, cops said. NYPD“He was driving and the glass just shattered and he felt the impact and thought it was a rock,” Diandra said. “He said that he pulled over and he got out and people came running over to him, and that’s when he noticed he got shot and he called 911. I’m just happy that he’s alive and doing well.”
Phillips put the blame on the pandemic for the surge of random violence in New York City.
“The people and the whole system after COVID never recovered,” he said. “People have been going through two years of lockdown and that’s the result. Something is not right.”
The construction worker though proudly told The Post he remained unafraid — despite being shot just hours earlier.
“I’ve been here since 1986, I’m not frightened to go any place in New York City,” he said, adding praise for the kindness of the three good Samaritans who helped him.
“Let’s focus on the three people who came to my rescue, the lady who gave me her scarf, another lady who call the police, and a guy who came to make sure they got everything,” Phillips said.
The suspect fled on foot and has not yet been arrested. NYPD“I want to focus on the good people.”
Cops released surveillance images showing him inside the station — and described him as a male in his 20s, with a dark complexion, thin build and large, black hair.
He was last seen wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and a black bubble jacket with a “The North Face” logo on the front left chest.
“We’re all shocked, including my dad,” Diandra said of the shooting. “You don’t think this is going to happen.”
Her dad wasn’t the first bystander hit by an errant bullet on the block.
On Sept. 28, Shayma Roman, a promising 17-year-old hoopster was killed when she was hit by two stray bullets as she left a relative’s home nearby.
Cops later charged Malik Bob with murder in that case.
Phillips’ cousin, Avril, a former cop, pointed Thursday to New York state’s controversial 2019 bail reform measures — which eliminated cash bail for most misdemeanor and nonviolent felony cases — as helping spur lawlessness.
“It’s all getting too crazy because of bail reform and if people know there’s no consequences, why wouldn’t they just do whatever they want?
“It’s unfair,” she added. “Unfair to the family. It’s unfair to everybody in the neighborhood. It’s unfair. You can’t do nothing. Horrible. It’s disgusting. I’m tired of it.”
