Zeldin says shooting near Shirley home part of surge in violent crime statewide

Two of the teens, both 17 years old, were struck and went to Zeldin's front porch to hide. Tyvon Smith says his younger brother was the one teenager that got away.

"I seen my brother running down the street - banging on the door crying - it looked like something out of a movie," Smith says.

The boys that were shot suffered non-life threatening injuries. News 12 is told they are recovering at the hospital.

Zeldin, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, was not home, but his two teenage daughters were. They were doing homework at the time of the incident and then called 911.

"One of the bullets grazed the fence…and then dropped here and we are about 30 feet from where my daughters were sitting on the other side of this fence," said Zeldin.

Zeldin, who's focused his campaign's platform on solving the surging crime rate in the state, said what happened to his family makes the problem all that more urgent.

"If you were going to try and recap the high-profile crime that happened in the last week or two, you'd think it was a year or two," said Zeldin.

Some of Zeldin's neighbors in Shirley say they've been feeling increasingly on edge.

"There's been a lot of crime going on, shootings going on everywhere around the last couple months," said neighbor Sean Penn.

Other neighbors say they were surprised that the shooting happened so close to them.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison stopped by the Zeldin household Monday morning and called what happened to the Shirley family and community "frightening."

"I'm going to be honest with you. I see too many guns on the street. That's something as a police department, we got to do better. We got to make sure we are getting guns out of these people's hands and holding people accountable. We have a lot to do to get ahead of this," said Harrison.

Harrison said the incident might be targeted but it is still too early to tell.

Police say no arrests have been made.