C.J. Veras was watching his 4-year-old cousin Brandon ride his bicycle between two buildings in the New Park Towers in Miramar Friday night when a teenager who lives in the same complex inexplicably shot the boy in the leg with a flare gun.
As little Brandon is being treated for non-life-threatening burns at Joe Dimaggio Children's Hospital in Hollywood, authorities are still working to piece together details of the incident.
According to Veras, the shooter began walking behind Brandon for no apparent reason as the boy pedaled down the sidewalk. When Brandon tried to turn his bicycle around to ride away, the teen pulled the flare gun out of his waist.
"My little cousin was trying to get away from him," said Veras. "So when he pulled the gun out it went off by accident and shot [Brandon] in the leg...It started flaring up in his leg."
Why would the shooter do such a thing?
"I don't even know."
Veras says the flare looked very much like a real gun.
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"I [had] seen him walking through here with it, and when he saw me he put it in his waist."
The flare burned a hole in Brandon's leg, and the shooter, who authorities say is 15 years old, became scared and ran. Police will not say how he came to possess the flare gun or to whom it belongs, and have yet to determine if charges will be fired.
Flares are typically fired to signal distress or illuminate a dark area, and as such they burn extremely hot and very brightly for some time. The average civilian flare lasts between 5 and 40 seconds.
