Teen shot in hand home from hospital

NEW YORK (WABC) -- She is the ideal high school student; Getting up at 5 in the morning on a weekend just to finish her homework.

The problem is, that's when a gunman, outside her window, decided to start firing.

The whole community came out to embrace and welcome the injured student home Monday night.

It was a bittersweet homecoming for 15-year-old Amy Sanchez.

This is the first time in nine days she's been back to the Queensbridge Houses after getting shot in her left hand.

It was 5 o'clock in the morning two Sundays ago. Amy got up early to finish her English homework before church when the quiet dawn was shattered with gunfire.

"I heard my mom scream to duck I the ground. When I was going down I got shot on third shot. I guess I fainted because I didn't hear any more," Sanchez said.

All it took was one bullet which went through her living room window through her hand and into the wall.

After a week in the hospital, it'll take months for her hand to heal and perhaps longer for the nightmares to go away.

Sadly life there has become like life in the trenches. Eyewitness News is told gunshots break out on a regular, monthly basis.

These families are used to ducking for cover but they don't want to hide anymore.

"None of these youngsters should fear getting shot in their apartment in Queensbridge," City Councilman Jimmy van Bramer said.

"You're not a victim, you're a survivor," City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said.

Meanwhile in a bizarre twist, a mother was sobbing at Monday night's rally.

Her son was arrested for the shooting.

And while her heart breaks for this studious young victim, she insists police nabbed the wrong man.

"My son didn't do it. My son didn't do it. He was home with two twins," said Priscilla Bryant, mother of the defendant.

Amy Sanchez says she and her mother are too afraid to go back to their apartment.

City officials are now trying to find get another home for the family.

Meanwhile, police stand by the arrest they made.

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