A young man survived after a shooter pumped a bullet into his head outside a Flatlands diner, police said.
The unknown assailant on Feb. 17 shot the 22-year-old victim from behind, causing a graze wound and another head injury, just after 3 pm in the parking lot of the Arch Diner at the intersection of Flatlands and Ralph avenues, according to a Police Department spokeswoman.
Paramedics rushed the man to Kings County Hospital where he remains in stable condition, the spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
The victim didn’t get a look at the shooter, who fled on Flatlands Avenue towards Utica Avenue, cops said. The suspect took off inside a white vehicle, according to this newspaper’s photographer Paul Martinka, who arrived on the scene to find the lot littered with about a dozen shell casings, and stained with blood.
The diner’s manager told this newspaper he heard loud noises at the time of the shooting, but that he and his employees didn’t check out the sounds’ source because they thought it was a car accident.
“I heard bam-bam-bam. I thought it was a car accident, but I was busy working inside the place,” said Mario Perez.
Soon afterwards, however, multiple cop cars arrived and police cordoned off the blacktop to investigate, according to Perez, who said the site is now clear, but one patrol car remains stationed outside the 24-hour diner.
Authorities have yet to identify the shooter, and their investigation is ongoing, officials said.
