(NEW YORK) — A 21-year-old will be placed under arrest in his hospital bed on charges he murdered a baby in Brooklyn by a stray bullet, the New York City Police Department said Thursday.
Amare Green allegedly fired shots from the back of a moped into a crowd in Williamsburg that struck and killed 7-month-old Kaori Patterson-Moore and grazed her 2-year-old brother as they sat in a stroller on Wednesday afternoon.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani called it a “devastating shooting” and said, “My heart aches for the parents impacted,” at a press conference on Thursday.
Green is a known associate of a street gang operating out of a public housing project in Brooklyn, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny said. Investigators are looking into whether the baby’s father may have been the intended target as part of a dispute with a rival gang.
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said detectives have identified the moped driver, but she declined to release a name. The driver is at large.
Tisch mentioned the impending arrest in a crime that shocked the city as she touted a continued drop in crime.
The shooting was reported at about 1:20 p.m. on the corner of Humboldt and Moore streets in the East Williamsburg area, according to police.
Several adults, including two people with strollers, and several other children, were nearby when two males approached the intersection on a moped, Tisch said. The rear passenger on the moped pulled out a gun and fired at least two shots toward the corner, Tisch told reporters, citing surveillance video.
“Today our city suffered a horrifying, senseless tragedy: a 7-month-old child being pushed in a stroller along a busy Brooklyn sidewalk was shot and killed in broad daylight,” the police commissioner said.
The baby was taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
After the shooting, the two suspects collided with an oncoming car about two blocks away, police said. Both men were thrown from the moped. The rear passenger, who fits the description of the shooter, was taken to the hospital and is in police custody, Tisch said.
The other passenger took off, but police later located the moped.
Mamdani called the shooting a “devastating reminder” of the work that remains to be done to combat gun violence.
“A life that had barely begun was taken in an instant,” Mamdani said. “There are no words that can mend the heartbreak this family is feeling now.”
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