Police say the 7-month-old was an unintended victim in a gang-related attack that investigators believe was aimed at someone else on a busy Brooklyn block.
NEW YORK — Police have arrested a second suspect in the Brooklyn shooting that killed 7-month-old Kaori Patterson-Moore, who was struck in the head while sitting in her stroller during a daytime attack that also left her 2-year-old brother with a graze wound.
The arrest moved the case into a new stage after several days of public grief, a large manhunt and mounting pressure for answers in a shooting that city officials said was tied to gang violence. Police said 18-year-old Matthew Rodriguez was taken into custody in Pennsylvania on Friday, while 21-year-old Amuri Greene, whom authorities describe as the gunman, had already been charged and arraigned. The killing stunned a city that had been reporting historically low shooting numbers and left Kaori’s family mourning a child whose life had barely begun.
Investigators say the shooting unfolded at about 1:20 p.m. on Wednesday, April 1, near Humboldt and Moore streets in East Williamsburg, where Kaori was out with her mother, Lianna Charles-Moore, her father, Jamari Patterson, and her 2-year-old brother. According to police and court papers, two men rode up on a moped and the rear passenger fired into a group gathered at the corner. Kaori was hit in the head. Her younger brother was grazed. In the confusion, family members ran for cover and rushed toward a nearby bodega before Kaori was taken to Woodhull Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch called the killing “a tragedy that truly shocks the conscience,” while Mayor Zohran Mamdani said “a life that had barely begun was taken in an instant.”
Authorities have said from the start that they do not believe Kaori was the intended target. Tisch said the attack appeared to be gang-related, and court records later added a key detail: Greene allegedly told police he had been aiming at someone else in the crowd. Investigators have also been looking at whether Patterson, the baby’s father, was the person the shooters were trying to hit. Some local reports, citing law enforcement sources, said detectives were examining a dispute linked to rival crews connected to nearby public housing developments, though that account has not been laid out in public court papers. What is known is that the gunfire came in broad daylight on a block where adults and children were outside, and that detectives quickly began piecing together the route of the moped through surveillance video and witness accounts. Police have not said how many shots were fired beyond early reports that at least two rounds were discharged.
The getaway became one of the most closely watched parts of the investigation. Police said the moped sped north on Humboldt Street after the shooting, traveling the wrong way on a one-way block before crashing into an oncoming car about two blocks from the scene. The impact threw both riders into the street. Greene, according to officials, was hurt badly enough that he ended up at a hospital, where detectives connected him to the shooting and placed him in custody. Tisch said the passenger was flung so hard that both of his shoes came off, a detail that underscored how chaotic the escape had become within minutes of the gunfire. The second rider fled on foot, prompting what police described as a massive manhunt. Early police briefings said investigators knew who the driver was but were not yet releasing the name. By Friday, that second suspect had been identified as Rodriguez and arrested in Pennsylvania by NYPD detectives working with the U.S. Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force.
The case also landed at a moment when city officials had been pointing to broad reductions in violence. On April 2, the NYPD announced that New York City recorded 54 murders in the first quarter of 2026, the fewest for any first quarter on record, and 139 shooting incidents, tying the record low set the year before. Public housing developments also saw what the department described as their safest opening to a year on record for shootings, shooting victims, murders and robberies. Against that backdrop, Kaori’s death cut sharply through the city’s message of progress. Officials said one child killed in a stroller was enough to expose how fragile those gains can feel to families on the ground. Detectives have continued to focus on possible gang connections, but police have not publicly detailed how Greene and Rodriguez know each other, whether anyone else helped them before or after the shooting, or whether more arrests are likely. For now, the clearest public record remains a mix of surveillance footage, police statements and the first criminal complaint.
Greene’s prosecution is further along than Rodriguez’s. Police said Greene has been charged with three counts of murder, attempted murder, assault and weapon possession offenses. He pleaded not guilty at an arraignment Friday night and was ordered held without bail. His lawyer, Jay Schwitzman, said afterward that he would conduct “an independent and thorough investigation of the facts and circumstances of this tragic incident.” Rodriguez, by contrast, was arrested later and, as of Sunday, authorities had not released court papers detailing his alleged role beyond identifying him as the suspected moped driver. Charges against him were reported as pending, and it was not yet clear when he would be extradited to New York or when he would first appear in court. Investigators are still expected to keep building the case through video review, witness interviews and forensic work, while prosecutors move toward the next procedural steps. Police also have not publicly said whether the state or federal authorities are examining any broader gang conspiracy tied to the shooting.
As the criminal case moved forward, the family’s grief became visible in memorials that spread across two Brooklyn locations. Neighbors built a shrine of stuffed animals, flowers and candles near the corner where Kaori was shot, and another grew near the Bushwick Houses building where her family lives. Handwritten messages left at the scene read, “Rest in peace,” “Love to the family” and “You will be missed.” Community members, clergy and elected officials gathered over the weekend for vigils, including one held on the eve of Easter. Kaori’s mother, fighting through tears in a television interview, said, “I can’t get her back. She’s gone, and I can’t ever see her again.” She said her daughter had just begun saying “mama.” Kaori’s grandmother, Linda Oyinkoinyan, told reporters the family was still in disbelief. “This is a baby,” she said. “She was just learning to take a few steps.” Those public moments did not answer the unanswered questions in the case, but they made plain what prosecutors and police filings cannot: the death at the center of the investigation was the loss of a child remembered not as evidence, but as a daughter, granddaughter and little sister.
As of Sunday, both suspects were in custody, one set of charges was still pending, and detectives were continuing to sort out motive and roles in the attack while Kaori Patterson-Moore’s family mourned at memorials that have become gathering places for a shaken Brooklyn neighborhood.
Author note: Last updated April 5, 2026.