Gunshots turn a kid's dream day to nightmare

Life was looking pretty good through the eyes of 6-year-old Aasin Williams.

The little guy was positively giddy yesterday, and for good reason: He was going to celebrate his last day of first grade by having a sleepover with some pals, his family said.

But instead, Aasin spent the night in a hospital, recovering from a gunshot wound.

Police said the boy was struck in the shoulder by a stray bullet when a trigger-happy thug shot up 13th and Pike streets in Hunting Park at 4:25 p.m.

A 25-year-old man who was the apparent target of the shooter was wounded once in the leg, said Detective Shawn Leahy, of East Detectives.

Both victims were listed in stable condition at Temple University Hospital last night, Leahy said. The gunman was still on the loose.

"It's really unfair that this happened," said Hakim Pitts, Aasin's cousin.

"He was out there playing with his friends. No one could expect anything like this to happen in broad daylight."

Pitts, 22, said his little cousin was ecstatic because he had finished school for the year at Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School.

"He was supposed to go on a sleepover," he said. "He just happened be out there when this guy came out and just started shooting."

Police said the gunman fired at least 10 shots from the northwest corner of the intersection. Little Aasin and the other victim were standing on the southeast corner.

At least two bullets tore through a boarded-up storefront where the victims fell.

Aasin's family didn't realize at first that he had been wounded."I think he was in shock," Pitts said. "Then we saw the blood."

The boy was in good spirits when relatives visited him at the hospital. "He asked if the other [victim] was OK," Pitts said

Leahy said the gunman, described as a 5-foot-7 black man who wore khaki pants and a white shirt, fled in a white SUV. Tipsters can contact East Detectives at 215-686-3243.

"There was at least 30 people out here," Pitts noted. "I know some people are afraid [to speak up] but they shouldn't be. There is a child involved."

Several residents on tree-lined Pike Street spoke wearily of how their neighborhood has worsened over time.

"I'm afraid for myself. I don't [go] outside that much," said Annie McBride, 68, who's lived in the area for more than 30 years.

"We used to have problems, but nothing like this. It's bad out here, real bad."