Shooting at July Fourth cookout near Coney Island beach leaves 8 wounded, including 4 kids

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NEW YORK (AP) — A shooting at a Fourth of July cookout near New York's Coney Island beach wounded eight people, including four children, police said.

One of the victims, a 21-year-old woman, was in critical condition while the others were described as being stable and expected to survive, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Sunday.

The shooting broke out Saturday night in the courtyard of an apartment building about a block from the famed Coney Island boardwalk and not far from the site of the Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating contest held earlier on the holiday.

The police commissioner said a suspect wearing a black mask fired into the courtyard where a family had gathered for a cookout. The shooter fled but police did recover a gun, Tisch said.

The four children shot are ages 6, 7, 12 and 14, Tisch said. There were no reports of any earlier disturbances at the gathering, she said.