A man is fighting for his life after being shot in the head while walking his stepmother's dog through a housing development in The Bronx on Monday.

The 32-year-old was walking through the Sonia Sotomayor Houses on Watson Avenue in Soundview just before 5pm when he was shot once in the head, a police spokesman told Daily Mail Online.

He had been with his cousin and the small dog when the shooter opened fire from inside a building, the New York Daily News reported.

The man was taken to Jacobi Hospital, where he remains in a critical condition.

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A man is fighting for his life after being shot in the head while walking through a housing development in The Bronx on Monday

The 32-year-old was walking through the Sonia Sotomayor Houses on Watson Avenue in Soundview when he was shot. Above, police at the scene in the aftermath of the shooting

Police discovered shells from a semi-automatic weapon inside the lobby of one of the buildings, the Daily News reports.

'There were two shots. I ran over and he was face up, bleeding,' Peter Torres told the newspaper. 'His head had a hole in it.'

Torres, 58, added: 'You can't even walk your dog during the day around here. It's a damn shame.'

Another witness Mark Matza also said he heard two shots from his window.

He had been with his cousin and his stepmother's dog when the shooter opened fire from inside a building

The shooting occurred at the Sonia Sotomayor Houses development in The Bronx on Monday

'It was shocking,' he told NBC New York. 'I had to think for a quick second, OK, now summer's here, is it firecrackers? It was clear.'

The victim is from Queens, sources told the Daily News. He has a criminal record, but has never been arrested in The Bronx, they said.

It was not immediately clear if he was the shooter's target.

An NYPD police van is seen at the scene of the shooting in The Bronx on Monday