Tragedy stalks the family of a 6-year-old boy shot during a mass shooting at a Fourth of July family cookout in Coney Island - the youngster's dad was shot to death before he was born and his teenage aunt was gunned down when he was a toddler, his traumatized mother the Daily News.

The little boy was the youngest of eight people, half of them children, shot when a gunman wearing a ski mask opened fire in the courtyard of a W. 30th St. apartment tower near Surf Ave. in Brooklyn about 10:35 p.m. July 4, cops said.

 (My son) said to me,  Mommy, they shot me. That person tried to kill me,'' the victim's mother, Ineisha Greene, told The News.  My son don't know what's going on, but he knows what happened to him. He's very smart. He knows exactly what happened to him. 

Greene doesn't like to talk much about the boy's dead father, saying she's worried the dad's enemies might make the connection and seek out her son for retaliation.

 I don't want my son to be on social media or the news, because my son's father had problems with a lot of people in the world, and a lot of people would already wish bad things on my son,  she explained.

His aunt's murder made headlines in 2022 - Keyaira Rattray-Brothers, 17, was killed when a revenge-seeking gunman survived an attempt on his life, then went on a four-day shooting spree in December 2022.

The gunman, Sundance Oliver, murdered a 21-year-old man just 10 hours before shooting Rattrey-Brothers in the Kingsbridge Houses, according to police.

On Wednesday, Robert Smith, 44, was arrested and charged with attempted murder for the July 4 shooting. At his arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court early Friday morning, prosecutors referred to the crime as a  mass shooting.  Smith was ordered held without bail.

 They (police) keep saying gang retaliation, gang retaliation. That had nothing to do with our family,  Greene said.  Like, this don't make sense. My son is 6 years old. What gang could he possibly be in? What could he possibly be a part of at 6 years old? 

Greene, her son and their extended family were celebrating Independence Day with a barbecue an

#nydailynews   #crimewatchnewyork