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A young mother has been shot dead in a chilling point-blank assault while pushing her baby in a stroller on the Upper East Side of New York City.
The murder occurred at around 8.23pm on Wednesday on a sidewalk at the intersection of Lexington Avenue and 95th Street, steps from a playground filled with children, officials said.
The 20-year-old victim was walking with her three-month-old baby when the shooter approached her and ‘fired a single shot into her head from a very close range,’ NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell told reporters.
The unidentified killer immediately fled on foot heading eastbound on East 95th Street and remains at large, police said.
NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell (center) and NYC Mayor Eric Adams (right) brief the press on a shooting after a woman walking her baby was shot dead on the Upper East Side
A mother has been shot dead in a chilling point-blank assault while pushing her baby in a stroller on the Upper East Side of New York City
The shooter was described as a male wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and black pants. Police offered no further description of the killer.
The woman was rushed to nearby Metropolitan Hospital, where she died within an hour. The baby was also taken to the hospital for evaluation but was unharmed.
Officials are probing domestic violence as a potential motive in the shooting, but have not yet confirmed such a connection.
‘We can’t confirm that at this time, it’s under investigation,’ Sewell told reporters when asked if the father of the baby is suspected in the shooting.
Police are withholding the identity of the victim pending family notification.
The area where the shooting occurred is a normally quiet neighborhood where violent street crime is less common.
Across the street is the Samuel Seabury Playground, which was filled with children who witnessed the horrific shooting.
Officers respond after a mother was shot in the head point-blank on an UES sidewalk
The murder occurred at around 8.23pm on Wednesday evening on a sidewalk at the intersection of Lexington Avenue and 95th Street, steps from a playground
The shooter was described as a male wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and black pants
One 10-year-old girl, who was at the playground with her brother and aunt, told DailyMail.com that she heard an ‘extremely loud boom’ and saw a woman fall to the sidewalk.
‘I was really confused, because I thought maybe this was fireworks. But then I realized that no, this is serious and that there was a gunshot,’ the young witness said.
‘And it really frightened me because I was right there at the park playing and I never would have ever though that would happen,’ she added.
‘I saw a lot of people running, and I saw a woman down there, she fell,’ the girl recalled.
‘I was worried but then I wanted to stay calm, because I didn’t want any interaction, and I didn’t want anything else to happen.’
New York Mayor Eric Adams called the shooting a ‘horrific crime’ and vowed that the perpetrator would be found and brought to justice.
New York Mayor Eric Adams (center) called the shooting a ‘horrific crime’ and vowed that the perpetrator would be found and brought to justice
Investigators work the scene after a woman was shot in cold blood on an UES sidewalk
The area where the shooting occurred is an upscale neighborhood where violent street crime is less common
In remarks to reporters, Adams blamed the shooting on the ‘over-proliferation of guns and how readily accessible they are.’
‘There is just no fear in using these guns on innocent New Yorkers and this is the result of that,’ said Adams, a Democrat who took office in January on a platform of curbing violent crime.
‘A woman is pushing a baby carriage down the block and is shot in point-blank range, it shows just how this national problem is impacting families,’ he continued.
‘The over-saturation of guns, and dangerous people that repeatedly leave our criminal justice system to continue actions like this, it is what’s making the New York City Police Department and other law enforcement agencies…difficult to fight this issue,’ he added.
Anyone with information about the shooting is urged to contact NYPD detectives at 1-800-577-TIPS.
Developing story, more to follow.
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