By Keith Griffith For Dailymail.com
Published: 23:26 EDT, 29 June 2022 | Updated: 10:06 EDT, 30 June 2022
A manhunt is on for the person who fatally shot a young mother in the back of the head in a chilling point-blank execution while pushing her baby in a stroller on the Upper East Side of New York City, just a few yards away from a playground.
The murder occurred at around 8.23pm Wednesday, on a sidewalk at the intersection of Lexington Avenue and 95th Street in the exclusive neighborhood, across the street from a playground filled with children, officials said.
The 20-year-old victim was walking with her three-month-old baby when the hooded shooter approached her and 'fired a single shot into her head from a very close range,' NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell told reporters.
City Council member Julie Menin, who represents the area, said on Twitter that the victim was the child´s mother. Her identity has not been released pending notification of family. The baby was not injured, according to NBC New York.
The killer, dressed in a black hoodie and sweatpants, immediately fled on foot heading eastbound on East 95th Street and remains at large, police said.
The Manhattan neighborhood is the most affluent in New York, with average house prices at an eye-watering $1.5million and private school fees exceeding $58,000 per year.
Horrified children at the nearby playground witnessed the horrific shooting, and one girl described hearing a loud 'boom' that she quickly realized was a gunshot.
A 10-year-old girl, who was at the playground with her brother and aunt, told DailyMail.com that she heard an 'extremely loud boom' and saw a woman fall to the sidewalk.
'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,' the young witness 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,' she added.
'I saw a lot of people running, and I saw a woman down there, she fell,' the girl recalled.
'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.'
Officials are probing domestic violence as a potential motive in the shooting, but have not yet confirmed such a connection. Stephanie McGraw - founder of the Harlem-based domestic violence charity We All Really Matter - suggested abuse may be behind this.
'You don't just randomly shoot a woman with a small child point blank in the head,' McGraw, who told the New York Times she was at the scene after 'getting a call,' said. 'That's rage.'
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The murder occurred at around 8.23pm on Wednesday evening on a sidewalk at the intersection of Lexington Avenue and 95th Street, steps from a playground
The execution-style killing occurred across the street from the Samuel Seabury Playground (above), which was filled with children who witnessed the horrific shooting
The Manhattan neighborhood is the most affluent in New York, with average house prices at an eye-watering $1.5million and private school fees exceeding $58,000 per year
NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell (center) and NYC Mayor Eric Adams (right) brief the press on a shooting after a woman walking her baby was shot dead on the Upper East Side
A mother has been shot dead in a chilling point-blank assault while pushing her baby in a stroller on the Upper East Side of New York City
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One 10-year-old girl, who was at the playground across the street, said she heard an 'extremely loud boom' and saw a woman fall to the sidewalk
Mayor Eric Adams blamed the shooting on the 'over-proliferation of guns' and said that criminals have 'no fear in using these guns on innocent New Yorkers.'
'More guns in our city means more lives lost,' Mayor Eric Adams said during a news conference at the site of the shooting. 'It means more babies crying, as those who love them lie dead.'
'The fatal shooting of a 20 year old woman who was pushing a baby stroller right here on 95th street is beyond tragic. I am calling on the mayor to have a community meeting about public safety. We need to be taking guns off our streets and the recent SCOTUS decision overturning the NY gun permitting law is only going to make that harder. My deepest condolences to the family, but thoughts and prayers are not enough. We need real action,' said Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney.
However, City Councilman and Republican Minority Leader Joe Borelli argued it was the fault of New York City's overwhelmingly Democratic political scene.
'Crime is raging and half our politicians have their woke heads buried in the sand, and the other half are focused on passing bulls**t laws to ban guns in the subways,' Borelli told DailyMail.com in a statement. \What's the point when we let all our criminals out, anyway? This is the cost of living in a one-party state.'
The shooting comes four days after President Joe Biden signed into law a legislation that marks some of the biggest changes to federal gun law in decades.
'Lives will be saved,' Biden said during the signing ceremony in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.
'From Columbine to Sandy Hook to Charleston, Orlando, Las Vegas, Parkland, El Paso, Atlanta, Buffalo, Uvalde, and for the shootings that happen every day in the streets that are mass shootings, we don't even hear about the number of people killed every day in the streets. Their message to us was to just something,' the president said.
'Today we did,' he noted.
The new law comes in the wake of a spat of mass shootings including one at a grocery store in Buffalo where 10 black people were killed and one at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, where 17 children and two teachers died.
Biden conceded the legislation doesn't have everything he wanted but 'it does include actions I've long called for that are going to save lives.'
The president praised the bipartisan work on the issue.
'It's time when this seems impossible get anything done in Washington. We are doing something consequential,' he said.
The day of the shooting, New York City and state officials announced lawsuits against 10 sellers of gun parts that the officials said can be assembled into untraceable ghost guns and sold without background checks.
State Attorney General Letitia James and New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the weapons sold by online ghost gun retailers have been found at a growing share of New York's crime scenes.
'These are dangerous weapons,' Adams, a former police officer, said at a Manhattan news conference with James and other officials. 'We should not think these are just kits used for hobbyists. They are being used by murderers. All of them are illegal.'
The shooter was described as a male wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and black pants. Police offered no further description of the killer.
The woman was rushed to nearby Metropolitan Hospital, where she died within an hour. The baby was also taken to the hospital for evaluation but was unharmed.
Officials are probing domestic violence as a potential motive in the shooting, but have not yet confirmed such a connection.
'We can't confirm that at this time, it's under investigation,' Sewell told reporters when asked if the father of the baby is suspected in the shooting.
Police are withholding the identity of the victim pending family notification.
The area where the shooting occurred is an affluent and normally quiet neighborhood where violent street crime is less common than in many other parts of New York.
Across the street from the murder scene is the Samuel Seabury Playground, which was filled with children who witnessed the horrific shooting.
Officers respond after a mother was shot in the head point-blank on an UES sidewalk
The shooter was described as a male wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and black pants
Another area resident, an adult male, said that while the area used to feel safe, violent crime had seemed to be increasing.
'I wasn't surprised to be honest, because I feel like this is starting to happen more and more often, all over the city,' he said.
'So it's not that much of a shock to me unfortunately, that's a sad thing,' the man added.
'This area felt safe even all hours of the night, and definitely not anymore,' he said. 'There's not much I can do, I already avoid being out real late at night, when there's not too many people around.'
Mayor Adams called the shooting a 'horrific crime' and vowed that the perpetrator would be found and brought to justice.
New York Mayor Eric Adams (center) called the shooting a 'horrific crime' and vowed that the perpetrator would be found and brought to justice
Investigators work the scene after a woman was shot in cold blood on an UES sidewalk
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In remarks to reporters, Adams blamed the shooting on the 'over-proliferation of guns and how readily accessible they are.'
'There is just no fear in using these guns on innocent New Yorkers and this is the result of that,' said Adams, a Democrat who took office in January on a platform of curbing violent crime.
'A woman 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,' he continued.
'The over-saturation of guns, and dangerous people that repeatedly leave our criminal justice system to continue actions like this, it is what's making the New York City Police Department and other law enforcement agencies...difficult to fight this issue,' he added.
New York City's 19th police precinct, where the shooting occurred, is generally among the safest in the city. Last year, the precinct recorded just two murders, and until Wednesday had not seen a murder so far in 2022.
The precinct is one of the most densely populated residential areas in Manhattan, and includes the mayor's residence, Gracie Mansion.
It also encompasses a stretch of Madison Avenue with some of the city's most upscale shopping options.
Police stage at the elementary school down the street from where the shooting occurred on Wednesday evening
Citywide, major crimes in New York are up 38 percent so far this year compared to last year
However, NYPD data shows that crime is on the rise in the 19th Precinct, as it is across the city.
So far this year, major crimes are up 44 percent in the precinct from the same period one year ago, with robbery up 60 percent and felony assault increasing by 23 percent.
The precinct has recorded 1,162 major crimes so far in 2022, compared to 805 incidents in the same period last year.
Citywide, major crimes in New York are up 38 percent this year compared to last year, with robbery up 39 percent, burglary rising 34 percent, and felony assault jumping 19 percent.
However, murders are down 13 percent from last year, and shooting victims have dropped 9 percent, gains that Adams and police officials attribute to a push to get illegal guns off the streets.
Anyone with information about the shooting is urged to contact NYPD detectives at 1-800-577-TIPS.
January 18: A 16-year-old aspiring rapper and alleged gang member was charged with shooting a cop in the Bronx
February 27: A 38-year-old man was shot dead and his 24-year-old nephew was wounded while the pair were sitting in a Mercedes-Benz in East Harlem
April 12: A man walked onto a northbound N train on the subway, threw two smoke grenades and fired a handgun 33 times. A total of 29 people were injured.
May 2: A Virginia man visiting his cousin in New York City was shot dead in broad daylight while sitting in a parked car on the Upper West Side.
May 22: A Goldmann Sachs was shot and killed aboard a subway train in Lower Manhattan Sunday in what police called a random, unprovoked attack.
June 12: A 25-year-old man was shot in the neck in the lobby of a luxury apartment building in Long Island City.
June 29: A 20-year-old mother is fatally shot, execution-style, while rolling her three-month old baby in a stroller on the Upper East Side
This is what happens when there are ZERO consequen...
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