A 20-year-old woman pushing a stroller with her 3-month-old baby was fatally shot in the head on the streets of New York City Wednesday night, police said. The child was not harmed.
New York City Police Department commissioner Keechant Sewell said in a news conference that the mother was pushing the stroller when a man “fired a single shot into her head from a very close range” before fleeing the scene.
The woman, whose name was not released, was rushed to the hospital five blocks down the street before being pronounced dead an hour after arrival.
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News of the horrific killing began to trend on social media early Thursday. New York City Mayor Eric Adams, speaking at the same news conference and later on Twitter, tied the micro crime to a macro-level problem in the city as it relates to gun control.
“When a woman is pushing a baby carriage down the block, and is shot at point-blank range, it shows just how this national problem is impacting families,” Adams said. “It doesn’t matter if you are on the Upper East Side, or East New York, Brooklyn. The oversaturation of guns endangers people.”
New York City Council member Julie Menin confirmed on Twitter that the dead woman was the child’s mother. She also suggested the case is being investigated for domestic violence.
Sewell, the police commissioner, said in the news conference the suspect remains at large and that there was no word on potential motive. Police are currently examining surveillance footage to determine more relevant information. The attacker was seen wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and black pants.
When contacted by USA TODAY early Thursday, a New York City Police Department public information officer said there were no updates.
New York had bolstered its gun laws in response to high-profile mass shootings earlier this month, but just last week the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a New York state law that requires a special need for carrying a weapon – making it easier to carry guns in some of the country’s most populated cities.