Harrison: Central Islip shooting was gang retaliation

A "gang house" in Central Islip was shot up Wednesday night, wounding a man inside, in a retaliatory shooting by a rival gang, according to the Suffolk County police commissioner.

Two bullets struck the unidentified man, who sustained non-life-threatening injuries for which he was hospitalized, the police department wrote in a news release.

"The house was targeted. The individual was not," said the commissioner, Rodney Harrison. "It looks like it was retaliation from one gang shooting at another gang house location."

Harrison didn’t say which gangs were believed to be involved.

And in an email Friday, the department’s press office said: "We are not disclosing the gangs involved."

The shooting was at about 11:50 p.m. on St. Johns Street, between Woodlawn and Rossmore avenues, the release said. No one else was hurt.

No one had been arrested in the shooting, which detectives believe was committed with handguns, according to the department’s press office, which declined to disclose the victim's name.

"Investigators are still in the early stages of the investigation, however, detectives do not believe it was a random incident," said an email from the office.

With Nicole Fuller and Cecilia Dowd

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.