NEW YORK — An 11-year-old boy was shot and critically wounded Thursday when two gunmen opened fire on a street in Brooklyn, New York City police said.

The boy was passing by a group of men gathered in front of 243 Schenectady Ave. in the neighborhood of Crown Heights when the gunmen approached the group and started shooting at 7:02 p.m., according to preliminary information from police.

The boy was shot in the upper torso and rushed to Kings County Hospital Center, where he was in critical condition, police said. A 31-year-old man who was also wounded in the left knee went to the hospital by private means and was in stable condition, police said.

Police said the man and the child were not related.

The boy was taken to the hospital by a passing ambulance that was already carrying another patient.

Police cars crowded the two-way avenue as officers cordoned off the intersection with yellow tape, according to a video shot by a passerby.

Geo Primus, who works at the Food Universe grocery store at 243 Schenectady Ave., said the store’s surveillance cameras captured the incident.

He said the footage showed a man wearing a white T-shirt, red shorts and basketball sneakers crossing the street and stopping in front of the supermarket. Primus said the man pulled out a gun and fired about six shots at passersby near Lincoln Place.

“It was very reckless,” Primus said in a phone interview. “Who knows how many people could have been hurt? It was literally just bystanders.”

Kyle Shermer, 25, said he had walked out of his apartment on Schenectady Avenue to take out trash when he heard four shots “in rapid succession” from the direction of the grocery store across the street.

“I saw a person running away from the scene “ he said. “I don’t know if it was the shooter or not.”

Anna Shermer, 21, Kyle Shermer’s wife, said she, too, heard shots and ran outside, where she saw a shirtless boy lying motionless on the ground. He was surrounded by a group of anguished adults including a woman who cried out, “He shot my son,” Shermer said.

“They were screaming, ‘Who would do this to a child? Why would you shoot him?’ ” she said.

Her husband said the shooting was shocking.

“I’ve been living in this area a year, year and a half, and I always hear gunshots from two or three blocks away,” Kyle Shermer said. “But not this close.”

Police said they do not have anyone in custody, and the investigation is continuing.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.