NEW YORK, USA - APRIL 12: New York City Police Department members investigate the crime scene after multiple people were shot and undetonated devices were found at a subway station in New York City, United States on April 12, 2022. Authorities said an investigation is underway and told residents to avoid the area of 36th Street and 4th Avenue in Brooklyn. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
A young mother was shot dead execution-style in New York City’s upscale Upper East Side neighborhood on Wednesday night, and police are still on the hunt for the gunman responsible for the shooting as of Thursday.
The three-month old child, who was being pushed in a stroller by the victim at the time of the tragic shooting, was unharmed, police confirmed to The Shade Room on Thursday.
The mother’s name has yet to be publicly released pending family notification. The gunman reportedly approached the woman from behind, shooting her once in the head.
NBC New York reports that the gunman was last seen wearing all black clothing running eastbound on foot in the area of East 95th Street and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Authorities are currently looking into the possibility that the gunman is the child’s father, NYPD officials relayed during a press conference Wednesday night following the shooting.
The shocking shooting took place right by a nearby playground, where a 10-year-old girl said she witnessed the entire incident, telling the Daily Mail that she heard an “extremely loud boom” before seeing the woman fall to the ground.
“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,” a 10-year-old girl who witnessed the shooting said. ”
And it really frightened me because I was right there at the park playing and I never would have ever thought that would happen.
I saw a lot of people running, and I saw a woman down there, she fell.
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.”
The upscale neighborhood is one of the most affluent and safest in New York, with average house prices sitting at a whopping $1.5 million and private school tuition pushing $58,000 per year, according to the Daily Mail.
Officials are currently investigating whether the deadly execution-style shooting was connected to domestic violence. They believe the gunman may have known the young mother.
Last month, there were 414 gun arrests, bringing the total number of citywide gun arrests in 2022 to 2,007 – a 4.4 percent increase compared with the 1,923 gun arrests through the first five months of 2021. As of June 2022, the NYPD has seized approximately 3,080 firearms, with gun arrests in the city at a 28-year high.
Overall crime in New York City increased by 27.8 percent in May 2022 compared with the same time last years in May 2021 (10,414 incidents vs. 8,149 incidents). Each of the seven major crime categories saw large increases, with a 42.1 percent increase in grand larcenies (4,116 incidents vs. 2,897 incidents); a 28.3 percent rise in burglaries (1,239 incidents vs. 966 incidents); and a 26.2 percent increase in robberies (1,506 incidents vs. 1,193 incidents).
“These are real lives, when a mother is pushing a baby carriage down the block and is shot at point-blank range it shows just how this national problem is impacting families,” NYC Mayor Eric Adams told NBC New York following the fatal shooting on Wednesday night. “We’re going to continue to do our job. We’re going to find this person who is guilty of this horrific crime. We’re going to find him and bring him to justice. We need to make sure this innocent person receives the justice we’re asking for.”
Meanwhile, murders in the city remain at their second-highest level since 2012, according to citywide crime stats. The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
