A 20-year-old woman was shot dead Wednesday night while pushing a 3-month-old boy in a stroller on the Upper East Side, authorities said.
The woman was near the intersection of Lexington Avenue and 95th Street around 8:30 p.m. when an assailant approached her and shot her in the head once at close range, police said. She was taken to the Metropolitan Hospital Center and pronounced dead, officials said.
The gunman, who was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and black pants, fled after the shooting, authorities said.
The boy was not injured, police said. Julie Menin, a City Council member representing part of the Upper East Side, said in a Twitter message that the dead woman was the child’s mother. A city official knowledgeable about the matter later confirmed the relationship. Police officers did not identify the victim and said they had not made any arrests.
Mayor Eric Adams, speaking at a news conference at the scene of the shooting, said the murder was another example of the scourge of armed violence in New York and another reason why he has made it a fight. of the main priorities.
“More guns in our city means more lives lost,” Adams said. “It means more babies are crying while those who love them are dead.”
Ms Menin, in an interview after the press conference, described the murder as “absolutely indescribable”.
He added: “This relentless violence with weapons must stop.”
At about the same time, just off Lexington Avenue, from where the shooting took place, Sophia Monegro stopped as she dragged a cart carrying a green green clothes bag to her apartment building in front. of the Samuel Seabury playground.
Ms. Monegro, 28, said she had moved to the neighborhood a year ago and was not surprised. “It’s the Upper East Side, but it’s New York City, so there’s always crime,” he said.
“It’s hard to raise a child in the city,” he added.
Up the avenue, near East 96th Street, Brice Peyre, 58, was smoking a cigarette as he watched the commotion unfold after the shooting. He said he had lived in the same building on East 96th Street since 1991.
“That’s really amazing,” Mr. Peyre. “It’s right inside the area.”
He described the neighborhood as quite safe and in more than three decades on the Upper East Side he could only remember two other deadly shootings in the area that drew significant public attention.
Police statistics show that the neighborhood, a largely affluent area of District 19, is generally safe. There was a murder on the grounds last year and Wednesday’s was the first that occurred that year.
Mr. Peyre said the city had a sense of danger these days.
“That doesn’t help at all,” Mr. Peyre.
This is a developing story.
Emma Fitzsimmons and Matthew Sedacca contributed to the report.