The true test of friendship sent the 13-year-old boy to Mount Sinai Hospital. Rony Monzon was sitting on a porch with a friend Wednesday night in the Brighton Park neighborhood when a gunman appeared and started shooting.
Rony was shot in the chest, hip and arm. Despite that, he is listed in good condition. He and his very close friend Deneysi Valdovinos say it's a miracle that both were not killed.
They were just listening to music. Wednesday night, Deneysi Valdo Vinos and her friend Rony Monzon were on the front porch of the two-flat where both kids grew up when someone stepped out from a neighbor's gangway and opened fire. Deneysi says Rony quickly stood up and blocked her.
"If he didn't move it would have gone straight to my head or something," Deneysi said. "I would have been dead already."
Deneysi credits her lifelong friend for saving her life. She says Rony didn't realized he took the bullet for her until he walked inside Deneysi's first floor apartment.
"He said, 'I think they shot me.' He looked at his shirt and it was bleeding," said Deneysi.
While Rony recovers from gunshot wounds to his chest, arm and hip, Deneysi already paid him a visit to thank him for saving her life.
"I went to the hospital. He is already joking and everything," said Deneysi.
But no one is joking back in their Brighton Park neighborhood. Police questioned neighbors Thursday.
The Reyes family lives across the street from the shooting.
"We don't want this to happen again," said neighbor Nadia Reyes. "There's a lot of children on this block."
Fourteen-year-old Deneysi says she can't rest until someone is caught.
"I'm really scared. I'm traumatized," said Deneysi . "I don't even wanna go out of my house."
Deneysi says she won't be sitting on the front porch anymore. She also says that she and Rony were not the intended targets. She believes gang members who live on the block may have been the intended targets.
