All he wanted was a new pair of kicks. Instead, a 15-year-old Brooklyn boy got a bullet in his foot.
The victim, identified by friends as Isaiah Martinez, was shot early Saturday as he tried to buy a pair of Kanye West-designed sneakers from a Brooklyn Foot Locker, cops and witnesses said.
Martinez apparently cut a long line of eager customers looking to buy the new Nike Air Foamposite Pro “Yeezy” sneakers moments before the 6 a.m. shooting outside the Knickerbocker Ave. store, near Stanhope St., in Bushwick.
“There were people camped out for the sneakers and Isaiah tried to cut the line,” said Edison Cartagena, 21, who described himself as a Martinez pal.
Those patiently waiting for their chance to buy the $250 sneakers at 8 a.m. were outraged by Martinez’s move and demanded he go to the back of the line, said Cartagena, who works at a nearby clothing store.
“They get into a scuffle and one of the guys on line left and told Isaiah he was coming back with a gun,” Cartagena said. “He came back and just fired off four shots.”
“He probably shot him in the foot just to scare him off,” he said. “You know, send a message.’
Paramedics took the teen to Woodhull Hospital with a nonlife-threatening wound.
“I don’t think anyone should lose their life over a pair of sneakers,” Cartagena said. “Thankfully he’s okay. The whole thing is just crazy.”
There were people camped out for the sneakers and Isaiah tried to cut the line.
Other witnesses said Isaiah mouthed off to the shooter before bullets started flying.
“I guess he tried to get tough with one of the guys he cut,” said witness Jayson Roque, 23, who works at a nearby GameStop. “One of them left and came back with a gun and shot him.
“That’s the generation we got now,” he said. “They shoot each other over shoes.”
Cartagena said his buddy was usually “calm and collected.”
“I don't know why he did what he did,” Cartagena said.
Cops were still searching for the gunman Saturday night.
Workers at the Foot Locker wouldn’t comment on the shooting, which delayed the store’s opening until 11 a.m.
By 6 p.m., a sign posted on the store announced that they had run out of Nikes as well as the new Air Jordans that were released the same day.
The fancy black and red shoes — which have an outersole that glows in the dark — are the latest in the Nike-West Yeezy collaboration.
Saturday’s shooting came less than a week after 13-year-old choirboy Gama Droiville was blasted in the head by a stray bullet in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
Gama is continuing to recover at Kings County Hospital from the Monday shot that was meant for someone else, and doctors say he may lose a wounded eye.
With Joseph Stepansky and Barry Paddock
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