Update: Police have a suspect in custody after a 20-year-old mother pushing a stroller near a New York City playground was fatally shot at point-blank range. Per NBC News, 22-year-old Isaac Argro has been charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon following the Wednesday killing of the woman, now IDed as Azsia Johnson. An NYPD spokesman says Argro is Johnson's ex-boyfriend, and also the father of Johnson's 3-month-old daughter, whom she was pushing in the stroller when she was gunned down. The baby wasn't harmed. Johnson's family tells the New York Times there'd been a long history of threats and domestic violence between the couple. The baby is now being evaluated by the city's children's services department. Johnson's mother says she expects her family will end up taking in the baby. Our original story from Thursday follows:
A 20-year-old mother was fatally shot in the head while pushing her 3-month-old infant in a stroller in front of a New York City playground on Wednesday, triggering a search for the person responsible. An unknown man dressed all in black approached the victim around 8:20pm Wednesday near Samuel Seabury Playground, which is next to an elementary school on Manhattan's Upper East Side, before firing a single shot "from a very close range," Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said at a press conference, per NBC News.
The unidentified victim was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital at 9:20pm, per the Washington Post. The gunman, who fled on foot, was last seen heading east on East 95th Street, Sewell said. "We're going to find this person that's guilty of this horrific crime," Mayor Eric Adams told reporters. "We’re going to find him and bring him to justice." Julie Menin, a city councillor who represents the district where the shooting occurred, confirmed the victim was the mother of the infant, who was uninjured. She added the incident may have been a case of domestic violence.
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But "to think that this incident happened in front of a school with a mother pushing her baby in a stroller is beyond comprehension," Menin said. Adams said the killing showed the danger of "the over-proliferation of guns on our street." "More guns in our city means more lives lost. It means more babies crying as those who love them lie dead," he tweeted. "We cannot allow this epidemic to keep claiming lives." The shooting comes days after the Supreme Court struck down a state law stipulating only those with "proper cause" can carry concealed handguns in public. (More New York City stories.)
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