{"id":185816,"date":"2026-04-05T00:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T00:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/185816\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T00:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T00:08:09","slug":"i-want-my-baby-back-dad-of-brooklyn-7-month-old-shot-in-her-stroller-says-in-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/185816\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I want my baby back,’ dad of Brooklyn 7-month-old shot in her stroller says in letter"},"content":{"rendered":"

The father of a 7-month-old slain by a stranger\u2019s bullet<\/a> in Brooklyn claimed he had been trying to turn his life around when his infant was killed, he said in a letter Saturday.<\/p>\n

Baby Kaori Patterson-Moore was fatally struck<\/a> by a stray bullet at Humboldt Street and Moore Street in Bushwick on Wednesday, when a man fired a gun from the back of a moped as her parents pushed the tot and her 2-year-old brother in a stroller.<\/p>\n

Police believe Kaori\u2019s dad, Jamari Patterson, was the intended target.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to spend my entire life being her father,\u201d he wrote in a letter released to the media after a community vigil Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Mourners at a vigil for 7-month-old Kaori Patterson-Moore, who was shot by a stray bullet that may have been meant for her father. James Keivom<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they put my baby in the incubator because\u00a0she was premature, I couldn\u2019t wait to take her home and just have her with me hugging and loving her forever.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He wrote of having graduated from a program and changing his life after his daughter\u2019s birth.<\/p>\n

\u201cUpon graduating, I ended up having my beautiful baby girl, seeing her for the first time I knew she was special,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n

When he finally got to take her home, he \u201cmade sure her and her mom and her brother all stayed with me and vowed I changed my life for them through music,\u201d the letter continued. \u201cThe life I live, even getting different jobs to stay away from negativity, I begin to change things up. Which is facts.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The shooting<\/a> has been devastating, he wrote.<\/p>\n

Great-grandmother Arlene Poitier said the family is \u201cbroken\u201d because of the baby\u2019s killing. James Keivom<\/p>\n

\u201cI really don\u2019t understand,\u201d he said. \u201cI was literally taking her outside to get her ears pierced, new clothes and shoes for her and her brother. I just taught my baby how to take a step. She took her first step to me, her only step. I can no longer sing to my baby, or nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI miss her so much. I want my baby back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter came as Kaori\u2019s relatives gathered with a crowd of about 50 mourners Saturday afternoon in a vigil to mourn the baby.<\/p>\n

The baby was \u201can angel, always smiling, always a beautiful individual,\u201d grandmother Christine Poitier told the mourners. James Keivom<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are hurt,\u201d great-grandmother Arlene Poitier told the gathering. \u201cWe have anger. My family is broken. I am broken. I don\u2019t have her to sleep with me at night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe parents would bring her in my room every night to go to sleep and she would be asleep until they closed the door and once the door was closed she would open her eyes and look at me,\u201d the grieving grandma said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s not there,\u201d she continued, choking up. \u201cI still have her diapers, her pajamas, and stuff on my pillow. She was Nana\u2019s baby. She\u2019s Nana\u2019s baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

Detectives believe the gunman was aiming for Kaori\u2019s father Jamari Patterson, who had ties to the Money Over Everything gang in Bushwick Houses, cops said.<\/p>\n

Poitier\u2019s grandson has been asking her why the baby was killed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to hear my grandson say, \u2018What did she do that someone would do this?\u2019\u201d Poitier recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat am I supposed to say? What am I supposed to say when children ask you stuff like this?\u201d<\/p>\n

A memorial for Kaori has grown outside the Sem Sem Deli with candles, flowers and stuffed animals near the area where she was fatally struck by a stray bullet. James Keivom<\/p>\n

The bullet that hit the baby also grazed her 2-year-old brother\u2019s back, cops said.<\/p>\n

New York Attorney General Letitia James attended the vigil and thanked the NYPD.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to thank them in particular for hunting down these two individuals who are responsible for the murder of a 7-month-old child,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n

She sent a message<\/a> to the Brooklyn District Attorney asking that \u201cthese two individuals be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. No excuses,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Kaori\u2019s grandmom blamed adults for failing to raise their kids right. Brigitte Stelzer for NY Post<\/p>\n

Alleged triggerman Amuri Greene, 21, was taken to a hospital for a possible broken leg suffered when the moped crashed after the shooting and was charged with murder, attempted murder, assault, and other counts.<\/p>\n

His alleged accomplice, moped-driver Matthew Rodriguez, 18, was arrested in Pennsylvania Friday and charges against him were pending, cops said.<\/p>\n

Detectives believe the gunman was aiming Patterson, who allegedly had ties to the Money Over Everything gang in Bushwick Houses NYCHA development, cops said.<\/p>\n

New York Attorney General Letitia James thanked the NYPD for making the arrests. James Keivom<\/p>\n

The baby was \u201can angel, always smiling, always a beautiful individual,\u201d grandmother Christine Poitier told the mourners.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis should have never happened,\u201d she said. \u201cThere should\u2019ve been no shooting where a baby is being killed as an innocent bystander.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaori\u2019s grandmom blamed adults for failing to raise their kids right.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomewhere through the generation we failed,\u201d Poitier said. \u201cA lot of these young kids, they don\u2019t know, they don\u2019t know. They don\u2019t have the morals, they don\u2019t have the principles. Some of them don\u2019t have their grandmother outside telling them, \u2018You can\u2019t do this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The father of a 7-month-old slain by a stranger\u2019s bullet in Brooklyn claimed he had been trying to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,4542,57,238,9,24,63,103,3980,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-185816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-news","11":"tag-guns","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-murders","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-nypd","18":"tag-shootings","19":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}