Police say the infant was not the intended target, one suspect is in custody and another is being sought.
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A 7-month-old girl riding in a stroller with her parents in East Williamsburg was killed by a stray bullet Wednesday afternoon after a gunman on the back of a moped fired into a crowded street corner, police said.
The shooting quickly became one of the city’s most closely watched homicide investigations because the victim was an infant and the attack happened in broad daylight on a block with adults, children and at least two strollers nearby. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said investigators believe the shooting was gang-related and that the baby was not the intended target. By Thursday, one 21-year-old suspect had been identified and was expected to face murder and attempted murder charges, while detectives were still searching for the second man they say drove the moped away from the scene.
Authorities say the sequence unfolded fast. Tisch said surveillance video showed two men on a moped leaving the Bushwick Houses area shortly before the shooting and heading toward Moore Street and Humboldt Street at about 1:15 p.m. Around 1:20 p.m., police said, the passenger on the back of the moped pulled out a gun and fired at least two shots toward a group gathered on the southwest corner. Kaori Patterson-Moore, who was in a stroller, was struck in the head. As shots rang out, her parents ran into a nearby bodega for cover. Inside, witnesses said, the girl’s mother realized the baby had been hit and began screaming. Her father then rushed the child to Woodhull Hospital, where she was pronounced dead before 2 p.m., according to police and local reports.
Officials and witnesses have filled in the next part of the account. Tisch said the moped continued north on Humboldt Street, going the wrong way on a one-way block, before crashing into an oncoming car near Manhattan Avenue and Siegel Street, about two blocks from where the shots were fired. Video reviewed by investigators showed both riders thrown from the scooter, she said, and the rear passenger hit the pavement so hard that both of his shoes flew off. Police later recovered the moped about five blocks west of the shooting scene. NBC New York reported that at least two shell casings were found, while authorities said no gun had been recovered in the initial hours after the shooting. Witness Bernius Maldonado told local television he first thought he was hearing fireworks, then felt fragments strike his leg. Deli worker Abdul Alzokari described the moment the mother looked into the stroller and understood what had happened, saying she “went crazy” when she saw the bleeding.
The case has shaken the city partly because it cuts against the broader direction of recent crime numbers while also echoing long-running fears about stray gunfire and retaliatory street violence. AP reported that through the end of March, New York City had recorded 52 killings in 2026, down 29% from the same period a year earlier, putting the city on pace for one of its lowest first quarters for killings and shootings in decades. But officials said the shooting on Moore Street was a reminder that a single burst of gunfire can undo any statistical comfort. Tisch said several adults and children were standing near the corner when the shots were fired, and she stressed that the infant was an unintended victim. The area around the shooting, on the border of East Williamsburg and Bushwick, includes public housing developments and busy blocks where family foot traffic, corner gatherings and passing mopeds mix easily in the middle of the day. That setting has become central to the investigation because detectives believe the shooters were pursuing a rival target, not the child.
By Thursday afternoon, police had moved the case from emergency response into a more defined criminal investigation. ABC7 reported that the suspected gunman was identified as Amare Green, 21, and that police said he would be charged with murder and two counts of attempted murder. He was already in custody after being taken to Brooklyn Hospital following the crash, though earlier police statements said he was first held in connection with an unrelated domestic violence related robbery while detectives worked to connect him to the shooting. Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny, according to ABC7, said Green is believed to be associated with a street gang based out of a Brooklyn housing development. Investigators are also examining whether Kaori’s father may have been the intended target in a dispute involving a rival gang. Police have not publicly named the second suspect, but they said he was last seen wearing light gray pants, a white T-shirt and a black surgical mask while fleeing toward the Marcy Houses. On Thursday morning, Rev. Kevin McCall and neighborhood clergy announced a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the second suspect.
The human details of the case have come largely from surveillance footage, witness descriptions and short public remarks from officials. New video from inside the bodega showed the baby’s mother and father racing in with the stroller as gunfire erupted outside. NBC New York reported that the mother looked into the stroller, recoiled in shock and anguish, and that the father then turned the stroller and rushed out toward the hospital. ABC7 said the couple’s 2-year-old son, who was also in the stroller, suffered a graze wound to the back but was expected to be OK. Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the killing a tragedy that “shocks the conscience” and said every child in the city deserves to grow up free from gun violence. City Councilmember Jenifer Gutierrez, whose district includes the area, wrote that no parent should have to live through such a scene. The public account remains incomplete in important ways, including who exactly was being targeted and what role each suspect played, but the picture of the immediate aftermath is already fixed: a broad daylight burst of gunfire, a frantic run into a store, and parents learning in seconds that their child had been mortally wounded.
As of Thursday evening, one suspect was in custody and expected to be charged, a second suspect remained at large and the NYPD said the investigation was still active. The next major step is the filing of formal charges and the arrest of the remaining suspect as detectives continue to sort out motive and target.
Author note: Last updated April 2, 2026.