A bubbly baby girl, who’d just learned to say “mama,” was fatally shot in the head by a stray bullet as the 7-month-old sat in a stroller in New York City — and her distraught mother’s reaction was captured on gut-wrenching security footage when she realized the tot was wounded.
According to the New York Post, Lianna Charles-Moore, 20, and her partner, Jamari Patterson, 22, entered a deli in the East Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn with infant Kaori and her 2-year-old brother after hearing multiple loud blasts on the street.
“We thought it was fireworks, but my son jumped out of the stroller, and I picked him up and carried him,” Lianna told the outlet.
Lianna Charles-Moore/Facebook
The noise turned out to be gunshots fired by a passenger on the back of a moped, authorities say, and when Lianna pulled back the double stroller’s visor to check on Kaori, she saw the tragic tot was wounded, her tiny pink hat soaked with blood.
“My daughter was just there, lying there. She was shot in the head. She was just bleeding. It was just too much,” says Lianna, who also reveals that her young son was grazed on the back by a bullet — and keeps asking for his little sister.
“My daughter was innocent. She didn’t deserve that.”
The afternoon incident was described as possibly gang-related. The New York City Police Department says the thug opened fire into a crowd before the moped’s driver sped off and that Kaori was not the intended target. Lianna has reportedly denied suggestions that the gunman was after Jamari.
NYPD/ DCPI
Investigators say the bike crashed into an oncoming car just two blocks from the crime scene and that the moped driver fled, leaving the injured passenger behind, according to the Post. The wounded man, who cops identified as Amuri Greene, 21, was brought to a hospital and arrested. Greene has pleaded not guilty to murder, attempted murder, assault and weapon possession and is being held without bail.
According to the Washington Post, a second suspect — 18-year-old Matthew Rodriguez — was apprehended in Pennsylvania by NYPD detectives working with U.S. marshals, according to authorities. Officials say Rodriguez is expected to be returned to Brooklyn to face murder charges.
The grieving mom says, “I want justice.”
This story 7-Month-Old Baby, Who Had Just Learned to Say ‘Mama,’ Killed After Being Struck by Stray Bullet in NYC first appeared on Globe. Add Globe as a Preferred Source by clicking here.