A 12-year-old boy was fatally shot while eating inside a parked vehicle in Brooklyn

• A 12-year-old boy was fatally shot while he ate inside a car in Brooklyn, police said Thursday.
• A 20-year-old woman in the driver's seat was also injured, but is expected to survive, police said.

A 12-year-old boy was killed Thursday evening as he sat in the passenger seat of a parked car, eating, in what New York City officials described as yet "another senseless shooting."

Officials from the New York Police Department said in a press conference that the shooting occurred around 7:45 p.m. in Brooklyn's East Flatbush neighborhood.

The 12-year-old boy was in the car with a 20-year-old woman and an 8-year-old girl when multiple shots suddenly rang out.

"The three pulled over in a car to eat some food when shots were fired and penetrated their vehicle," NYPD Assistant Chief Michael Kemper said, adding that the motive is "unknown" and that it's unclear if the vehicle was targeted.

An NYPD spokesperson told Insider that two "dark-colored sedans" had been exchanging gunfire at the scene, and that the car the 12-year-old was sitting in appeared to have been caught in the crossfire.

The spokesperson said the child was pronounced dead at the scene, and his identity won't be released until his family has been notified.

The 20-year-old woman who was in the driver's seat was also struck by the gunfire, and Kemper said she was in surgery Thursday evening and was expected to survive. The 8-year-old girl was sitting in the back of the car and was uninjured, Kemper said.

Authorities said they were "potentially" looking for two vehicles, both black sedans, that were seen fleeing the scene of the shooting. They urged the public to come forward with any details of the crime.

The 12-year-old boy killed Thursday was one of several New York City children to be shot in recent months. A 3-year-old toddler was shot in the shoulder while her father picked her up from daycare last week in Brooklyn, and an 11-month-old baby was struck in the cheek by a stray bullet in January as she sat in a parked car with her mother in the Bronx.

Mayor Eric Adams also spoke at Thursday night's press conference, lamenting the spate of recent shootings and condemning the amount of guns on New York City's streets.

"We hear so much about those who are fighting, but when are we going to start fighting for the innocent people of this city?" Adams said. "We're going to catch this shooter, but as long as we have guns in a revolving-door system, we're going to continue to have crimes like this."