FORT WORTH, Texas (Reuters) - A boy using sign language while walking down a street with his deaf cousin was shot and wounded in Fort Worth by suspected gang members who may have thought his hand motions were rival gang signals, police said on Tuesday.

Henry Handy III, 16, was in fair condition at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth after being shot once in the chest on Saturday night. The case was made public on Tuesday.

Police said Handy was walking down the street practicing sign language with his 15-year-old cousin when a car passed and a backseat passenger fired at the boy.

The gunman, who got out of the car and threatened to kill the deaf youth, was dressed in the colors of a local gang.

The hearing-impaired cousin told police he believed the gunman had mistaken their conversation for gang signals.

"We've never heard of anything like this. Right now our gang unit is investigating, but we have no named suspects," police spokesman Lt. David Burgess said.

There is no evidence that Handy or his cousin were gang members, he said.