Baby shot in face in NYC
NEW YORK - A baby was shot in the face while sitting in a parked car near Valentine Avenue and East 198th Street in the Bronx, police said.
According to the NYPD, the 11-month old girl was inside a parked car with her mother at 6:48 p.m. Wednesday when she was hit in the face by a stray bullet. Police said both she and her mother were bystanders and not the intended targets of the shooter, who was chasing another man in the area.
Responding police officers found the mother holding the child outside the car, and quickly escorted the parents and ambulance to St. Barnabas Hospital. The baby was then taken to Weill Cornell Medical Center in critical but stable condition.
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An unidentified man opened fire while chasing another man in the street, according to the NYPD. Police were taking witness statements and looking at surveillance videos to identify the shooter.
"If that's not a wake up call, I don't know what it is," Mayor Eric Adams said in a tweet about the shooting. "It should be unimaginable that this would happen in our city. But it did. Leaders at every level have abandoned city streets. I won't. I refuse to surrender New York City to violence."
Adams also delivered emotional remarks at a press briefing, addressing the shooting and other recent incidents of gun violence in the city.
"This is not the city our children should grow up in," Adams said. "Enough is enough."
"This is very difficult and completely unacceptable in our city that an 11-month-old baby is shot," Deputy Chief Timothy McCormack said at a press briefing about the shooting. "Her birthday is in a few days. We were here last night with a police officer shot in the street. This is unacceptable and needs to stop."
The shooting was under investigation. Police released a wanted poster with a photo of a suspect and a vehicle.
Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at or on Twitter @NYPDTips.
Police say all calls are strictly confidential.