2 men quickly arrested in shooting of boy, 14

Moments after the shooting of a 14-year-old boy, two Hempstead men suspected in the Wednesday morning attack were arrested after a First Precinct officer found them with a stolen car at a Uniondale gas station, Nassau County police said.

Louis Hernandez, 18, of 43 Harvard St., and Garson Garcia, 21, of 100 Jerusalem Ave., were arrested about 4 a.m. after a brief struggle at the Gas and Stuff station at 880 Jerusalem Ave., police said.

Hernandez was charged with first-degree assault in the shooting that wounded the boy in his left leg in the 600 block of Front Street in Hempstead Village.

The boy was taken to the Nassau University Medical Center "in a personal vehicle," police said Thursday in a news release. Police did not provide an update of his condition.

Garcia was among the "participants" in the shooting, police said, but he has not been charged in the case.

Shortly after the shooting, police said, one of the men was acting suspicious, walking around the gas station and a parked vehicle in the station's lot, according to a report.

An officer in the area noticed the vehicle had two different license plates and asked one of the occupants for his license and registration. The suspect then yelled to two other men in the car, and all three tried to run away. The driver was able to escape, police said.

Hernandez resisted arrest, police said, injuring an officer's hand. The officer required treatment at NUMC, police said, but did not provide more information.

A 9-mm handgun and two large hunting knives were found in the car, was had been reported stolen from Hempstead on Sunday, police said.

An investigation linked Garcia and Hernandez to the shooting, police said.

Garcia was charged with two counts of possession of a dangerous weapon and criminal possession of stolen property. Besides the first-degree assault charge in the shooting, Hernandez was charged with second-degree assault, resisting arrest, two counts of possession of a dangerous weapon and criminal possession of stolen property. They were scheduled to be arraigned Thursday at First District Court in Hempstead.