Holly MatkinNew York, NY – A 20-year-old mother was fatally shot in the head at point-blank range while pushing her three-month-old baby in a stroller in Manhattan on Wednesday night, according to police.
Police said the young mother was walking on East 95th Street near Lexington Avenue on the Upper East Side at approximately 8:30 p.m. on June 29 when a gunman dressed all in black walked up behind her and shot her in her right temple, CNN reported.
The bullet traveled through her head and lodged into a nearby parked car, according to investigators.
Sources said the gunman fled on foot down East 95th Street after the shooting, WNBC reported.
The woman was rushed to Metropolitan Hospital Center, where she was pronounced dead, according to The New York Times.
Her baby was not injured in the attack, police said.
The victim’s mother, Lisa Desort, identified her on Thursday as Azsia Johnson, FOX News reported.
Police said Johnson was temporarily living in a women’s shelter on East 104th Street, several blocks away from where she was murdered, CNN reported.
She also has a second child who was not with her at the time of the shooting, according to investigators.
Police said they are working to determine whether or not the gunman had a relationship with the victim, WNBC reported.
But according to Desort, the man responsible for her daughter’s death is the baby’s father, FOX News reported.
“The city was supposed to be protecting her,” Desort said. “This is a domestic violence case from January. We called the precinct… we called numerous times for her protection. No one protected my daughter, and now she’s dead.”
Desort said the father of Johnson’s three-month-old child threatened to kill her, Johnson, and Johnson’s sister.
“We called the precinct numerous times,” she reiterated.
Desort told FOX News that Johnson aspired to be a pediatric nurse.
“She had been working since she was 16, and she took care of people,” the grieving woman said. “She was the best mother. My daughter did not deserve this.”
The New York Police Department (NYPD) declined to comment on the ongoing investigation, but confirmed that the baby’s father is a person of interest in the case, FOX News reported.
Police did not immediately release his name.
FOX News opted to withhold the suspect’s name out of respect for the investigation, but the news outlet noted that the suspect had been accused of assaulting Johnson while she was pregnant and that he has a lengthy criminal history.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said during a press conference Wednesday night that the horrific murder is further evidence of “the oversaturation of guns and dangerous people that repeatedly leave our criminal justice system,” CNN reported.
“We’re going to continue to do our job,” Adams said, according to WNBC. “We’re going to find this person who is guilty of this horrific crime. We’re going to find him and bring him to justice. We need to make sure this innocent person receives the justice we’re asking for.”
At least 624 people had been shot in New York City this year as of June 26, CNN reported.
A total of 197 murders occurred during the same timeframe.
