July 16 (UPI) — A young mother pushing a stroller and a man near her were injured in a drive-by shooting in the Queens borough of New York City on Friday when an unknown suspect opened fire from a black SUV.
The woman, 28, was walking on Mott Avenue in the Far Rockaway neighborhood around 7 p.m. with her 2-year-old child in the stroller and her 5-year-old child beside her when a black Acura MDX pulled up, firing a hail of bullets before speeding off, police said.
Police said the woman was hit in the chest and a 44-year-old man near her was hit in the arm, both of whom were taken to Jamaica Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. It was not immediately clear if the two victims, who were not identified, knew each other.
No arrests have been made and police have released surveillance video of the car seeking information from the public.
The man who was hit has gang affiliations and is believed to be the gunman’s intended target, sources told the New York Daily News.
The shooting happened the same day as the funeral for Azsia Johnson, a 20-year-old woman who was shot dead while pushing her baby’s stroller near the Samuel Seabury Playground on the Upper East Side of New York City around 8:30 p.m. on June 29.
Isaac Argro, the 22-year-old father of her infant daughter Khloe, was later arrested and charged with murder and the criminal possession of a weapon for her death.
Johnson had told a family member she was planning to meet with Argro to grab a bag of clothes he had promised for their child before she was fatally shot in the head, police said.
Argro could be seen in video footage obtained by police waiting on the stoop of a nearby building before the shooting and throwing away the clothing he was wearing afterward.
“She sought help for domestic abuse,” her sister Jade Johnson told the Daily News. “But they just didn’t care and they couldn’t help her.”
