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Two teens injured in shooting outside of New York congressman's home

Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., said his two 16-year-old daughters were home Sunday afternoon when two people were shot on their Long Island street. File Photo by Sarah Silbiger/UPI
Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., said his two 16-year-old daughters were home Sunday afternoon when two people were shot on their Long Island street. File Photo by Sarah Silbiger/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Two people were injured in a drive-by shooting that occurred outside Rep. Lee Zeldin's Long Island home, the Republican congressman and authorities said.

Zeldin, who is the Republican nominee for New York governor, said the shooting happened at around 2:18 p.m. Sunday while his two 16-year-old daughters were home and he and his wife were in the car having just departed a Columbus Day parade in the Bronx.

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The Suffolk County Police Department identified the two people shot as 17-year-old boys from Mastic and Mastic Beach, The New York Times reported. They were both taken to a local hospital where they received treatment for non-life-threatening injuries.

According to the authorities, the two teenagers were walking with a third on Saint George Drive when someone in a vehicle opened fire, hitting the two boys who then attempted to hide on a property. The third boy fled the scene on foot, they said.

"The two individuals who were shot were laying down under my front porch and the bushes in front of our porch," Zeldin said in a statement, adding that law enforcement was at his house and that he and his family were cooperating with investigators as well as providing them with security footage from his home cameras.

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The security camera footage of the incident shows two people who were likely shot before they came into frame, he told reporters during a late Sunday press conference.

Zeldin said his daughters were working at their kitchen table when the shooting occurred. Both girls ran upstairs after hearing the gunshots and locked themselves in the bathroom before calling the police to notify law enforcement of the shooting.

"One of the bullets was actually found about 30 feet from where they were sitting at that table," he said. Neither of his daughters was injured in the shooting.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is expected to win re-election over Zeldin in November, said in a statement that she has been briefed on the shooting.

"As we await more details, I'm relieved to hear the Zeldin family is safe and grateful for law enforcement's quick response," she said.

The incident comes more than two months after Zeldin was attacked while giving a campaign speech in the town of Perinton, located just outside of Rochester.

David Jakubonis, 43, has been charged with assaulting the congressman with using a dangerous weapon.

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