Baby killed in gang-related shooting on NYC sidewalk, police say
A 7-month-old baby being pushed in a stroller on a busy Brooklyn sidewalk was shot and killed on April 1 in what authorities believe to be a gang-related incident.
Several 911 calls reported a child had been shot at about 1:20 p.m. on April 1, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference. Investigators uncovered video footage showing two male suspects riding a moped that approached the intersection at Moore Street and Humboldt Street in northern Brooklyn.
The suspect riding on the back of the moped took out a gun and fired at least twice in broad daylight toward the southwest side of the intersection, where several adults, two strollers and multiple children were standing and walking, Tisch said.
The 7-month-old baby, identified as Kaori Patterson-Moore, was struck while inside one of the strollers. She was grabbed by her father and taken to a hospital a couple of blocks away, authorities said. The infant was later pronounced dead.
“A life that had barely begun was taken in an instant,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said. “There are no words that can mend the heartbreak this family is feeling now.”
Tisch announced in an update on April 2 that 21-year-old Amari Green, the alleged “trigger-puller,” was identified as a suspect and will be arrested and charged with murder and two counts of attempted murder. He is currently in the hospital, she said. It was not immediately clear if Green had a lawyer who could comment on his behalf.
Footage obtained by police showed the moped continuing northbound on Humboldt after the shooting, and crashing into an oncoming car about two blocks away. Both men were thrown from the scooter, and the rear passenger landed so hard that he lost both his shoes, which were later recovered by police, Tisch said. A 911 call reporting an injured male came in at about 1:25 p.m. and corresponded to that crash, Tisch said. The rear passenger was taken by ambulance to a hospital.
Investigators recovered at least two shell casings at the scene, Tisch told reporters. The moped was also found abandoned five blocks west of the shooting, she said.
The second suspect on the moped has been identified by police, but officials didn’t immediately confirm his name. A day earlier, Tisch described the second suspect as a young male who was wearing light grey pants, a white shirt and black surgical mask. He was the subject of a “massive” manhunt that included the use of bloodhounds, she said.
“This shooting is believed to be gang-motivated with the victim being an unintended target,” Tisch told reporters.
Authorities have not said who they believe the intended target was.
“This little baby, angel… This I will never be able to get over,” the baby’s grandmother Linda Oyinkoinyan told CBS New York.