June 30 (UPI) — Authorities said a 20-year-old woman was fatally shot in the head at close range while pushing a baby stroller in Manhattan on Wednesday night.
New York Police Department Commissioner Keechant Sewell told reporters during a press conference that the unidentified woman was shot at around 8:20 p.m. on the Upper East Side by a man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and sweat pants.
The woman was pushing a three-month-old in a stroller when the unknown man approached her “and fired a single shot into her head from a very close range” before fleeing the scene east on foot, she said.
Responders found the woman unconscious and transported her to the Metropolitan Hospital Center where she was pronounced dead at 9:20 p.m., according to police.
New York City council member Julie Menin said the shooting occurred at 95th Street and Lexington, and identified the woman as the child’s mother.
The baby was alright, she said.
“To think that this incident happened in front of a school with a mother pushing her baby in a stroller is beyond comprehension,” Menin tweeted. “My prayers are with the victim’s family.
“This tragedy is simply unspeakable and this violence must stop.”
The shooting occurred amid a surge in gun violence in the country that has been marked by several mass shootings that have left scores dead, including 10 people last month at a Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket.
Earlier in the day, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled gun control legislation that includes requirements for firearms to be locked up in residences where there are occupants under the age of 18 and when households are traveling, among other measures.
In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams said at the press conference that during the day he and Sewell had been with Attorney General Letitia James as she filed a lawsuit against gun distributors on allegations of selling to New Yorkers tens of thousands of illegal frames and receivers that were then converted into unserialized and untraceable weapons known as ghost guns.
After that, they met with Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, D-N.Y., to discuss gun trafficking.
“This entire day we have been addressing the problem of the over proliferation of guns on our streets, how readily accessible they are and how there is just no fear in using these guns on innocent New Yorkers, and this is the result of that,” Adams said. “These are real stories, real lives.”
“When a mother’s pushing a baby carriage down the block … and is shot at point blank range it shows just how this national problem is impacting families.”
