The gunman who opened fire on a Brooklyn crowd, killing a 7-month-old baby girl in a stroller with a stray bullet, will be charged with murder, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Thursday.
Amari Greene, 21, was taken into custody after the moped he was riding on the back of crashed a few blocks away from the scene, cops said. Both he and his accomplice, who remained on the loose Thursday, were thrown from the moped and Greene was injured in the crash.
Speaking at a press conference at NYPD headquarters in Lower Manhattan Thursday, Tisch said that detectives have identified the operator of the moped and are actively looking for him.
Greene was allegedly the trigger puller in the death of little Kaori Patterson-Moore, who was struck in the head by a stray bullet as her mom pushed her and her 2-year-old brother in a double stroller near Humboldt and Moore Sts. in East Williamsburg about 1:20 p.m. Wednesday, cops said.
Kaori’s mother, Lianna Moore, 20, and her fiancé, Jamari Patterson, 22, had taken their two young kids out to get baby supplies when the shooting occurred.
The backseat passenger on a passing scooter opened fire into a group of people at the corner, which included other young children.
Moore raced her two children to a nearby bodega, where she found blood on Kaori’s face. Her father scooped the infant up and raced her to Woodhull Hospital a few blocks away but the infant couldn’t be saved.
The couple’s 3-year-old son was grazed in the back by the bullet that pierced Kaori’s skull, police and witnesses said. He was taken to the same hospital and treated and released.
“My daughter, she was innocent. She was happy. She was always laughing,” Moore, told the Daily News Wednesday. “She didn’t deserve that.”
Mia Torres, a friend and neighbor of Kaori’s father, heard screaming outside moments after the shooting. She raced out to find Moore quaking in a mix of fear and outrage.
“My daughter got shot! My daughter got shot!” Moore screamed, Torres, 19, remembered.
Moore’s son was crying as well, she said.
“This is my sister! I want my mom!” the child cried, Torres said.
“It’s been going crazy since last night,” said Torres, who lives in the same building as Patterson. Moore started showing up at the building about three years ago and would often be seen playing with the children outside.
“I can’t stop posting about the baby on social media,” Torres said. “I know this is hard on everybody.”
Greene was riding behind his accomplice when he drew his gun, startling surveillance footage released by the NYPD shows.
After firing off a few rounds, the pair fled north on Humboldt St., took a left on Siegel St. and then crashed at Manhattan Ave. three blocks from the scene, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny.
Both men were thrown from the scooter, with Greene hitting the pavement so hard that he lost both shoes, Tisch said.
Video posted online shows the suspects’ scooter slamming into the front end of a sedan as they travel against traffic. The impact sends both men hurling to the pavement, and the shoeless rear passenger can be seen hobbling on one foot afterward.
The video ends as the scooter’s operator retrieves what appears to be a firearm from the street before both men climb back onto the scooter and ride off screen.
EMS alerted by a 911 call placed after the crash brought Greene to Brooklyn Hospital Center, where he was first taken into police custody for a domestic-violence-related robbery, according to Tisch.
He is a known gang associate from NYCHA’s Marcy Houses, police said.
Tisch said the shooting is believed to be gang-related and the baby was an unintended target.
“I want justice,” Moore said. “They could have killed my son and my daughter.”
Torres said violence in and around the NYCHA complexes near where the shooting occurred are “not that bad when it comes to shooting.”
“They’re could be a crowd of over 50 people outside and nothing ever happens. That’s why this is so weird,” she said.
The teen was stunned that the brazen daylight shooting occurred near families. A public school was literally behind her building, she said.
“I feel if you saw a kid around, you should put the gun away,” Torres said. “Still shooting while knowing there are kids around? That makes no sense.”