A person of interest has been identified in the execution-style murder of a mother pushing her three-month-old baby in a stroller through the Upper East Side on Wednesday night, with police now probing domestic violence as a possible motive.
New York City Council Member Julia Menin, whose district covers the area where the shooting took place, announced the update on Twitter on Thursday – just hours after the brutal killing sent shockwaves through the affluent Manhattan neighbourhood and officials blamed the “over-proliferation” of guns in the city.
An NYPD spokesperson confirmed to The Independent that there is a person of interest in the case but that no one has been taken into police custody at this time.
Police would not release the man’s identity, disclose his connection to the victim or confirm whether or not they knew his whereabouts.
The 20-year-old mother, whose identity is yet to be publicly released pending notification of next of kin, was temporarily living at a woman’s shelter at the time of her death, a law enforcement official told CNN.
The shelter in East Harlem is just blocks from 95th Street and Lexington Avenue where she was shot dead on Wednesday night.
It is not clear how long the victim had been staying there or what circumstances led her to seek shelter there, however the woman is said to be named in multiple domestic incident reports.
The police source said that investigators had learned details about the mother and her three-month-old child from domestic incident reports where her name appears.
As well as the mother’s name, the reports also include the names of former boyfriends and a second child who was not with the victim at the time of the shooting. It is not clear if the person of interest is named in the reports.
The shocking attack unfolded at around 8.23pm on Wednesday night when a hooded gunman approached the victim from behind and shot her at point-blank range in the head.
Police said the suspect – a man dressed in a black hooded sweatshirt and black sweatpants – fled the scene on foot along 95th Street.
The woman was rushed to hospital where she was pronounced dead. The baby was unharmed.
The shooting took place just steps from the Samuel Seabury Playground where young children were enjoying a summer evening with friends.
One 10-year-old girl who was there with her brother and aunt told The New York Post that she initially mistook the noise of the gunshot for a firework.
“But then I realised there was a gunshot. And it really frightened me because I was right there at the park playing and I never would have thought this would have happened,” said Gabriella.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams blamed the gun violence “epidemic” and the “over-proliferation of guns” in a press conference on Wednesday night.
“More guns in our city means more lives lost,” he said. “It means more babies crying, as those who love them lie dead.”
He added: “These are real stories, real lives. When a woman is pushing a baby carriage down the block and is shot in point blank range, it shows just how this national problem is impacting families.
“It doesn’t matter if you are on the Upper East Side or East New York, Brooklyn.”
The mayor, a former NYPD officer, said that the violent slaying came just hours after New York officials had spent the day working to tackle gun violence in the city at a time when shootings have soared both in New York and across the wider US.
On Wednesday, Mr Adams announced the city was filing lawsuits against ghost gun retailers and met with New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand about tackling gun trafficking.
Meanwhile, Governor Kathy Hochul announced that state lawmakers were working on a gun control bill to ban people from carrying firearms in many places including businesses, unless the individual business specifically says guns are welcome.
The steps come amid a rise in mass shootings across America in recent months and calls for tighter gun control to prevent more communities being torn apart by gun violence.
Last week, President Joe Biden signed a gun safety bill into law after a bipartisan group of lawmakers worked to introduce and pass the first gun major federal regulations in decades.
However, as gun control measures passed through Congress, the conservative-heavy Supreme Court then loosened gun control in a ruling on Thursday.
The justices ruled that a New York law that required people who seek to carry a concealed weapon to get a permit was unconstitutional, paving the way for people to legally carry guns on the streets of America without providing a specific reason for doing so.
