Baby killed by a stray bullet after drive-by attack in Brooklyn, police say

This image taken from video provided by the New York Police Department shows New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, flanked by Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, left, and Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny, speaking during a news conference, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in New York. (NYPD via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — A 7-month-old baby in a stroller was killed by a stray bullet Wednesday afternoon when a man on a moped shot at a group of people on a Brooklyn sidewalk, authorities said.

The shooting was believed to be gang-related and the child an unintended victim, police said.

“There are no words that can mend the heartbreak this family is feeling right now,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani told reporters in a briefing near the spot where the shooting happened. “A life that had barely begun was taken in an instant.”

The shooting unfolded around 1:20 p.m. after two men sped down a street on a moped and the man on the back of the vehicle fired at least two shots at a street corner where several adults and children were gathered. No other injuries from the shooting were reported by police.

The moped sped off, but crashed into an oncoming car two blocks away, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. The impact threw both men off the vehicle so hard that the moped’s passenger lost both his shoes, she said.

One of the men on the moped was hurt in the crash and brought to a hospital, where he was in police custody in connection with an unrelated investigation, police said. The other man fled and was still being sought by police Wednesday afternoon.

Related Stories

Police investigators used neighborhood security cameras to track where the moped traveled in the minutes after the shooting, Tisch said.

“This is a terrible day in our city, a tragedy that truly shocks the conscience,” she said at the news briefing. “As a mother, I cannot imagine the pain that this family is feeling or the grief that they now carry with them. It is unspeakable.”

The child’s death comes amid a sustained period of dropping crime in New York City. Through Sunday, the NYPD had recorded 52 killings so far in 2026, down 29% from the same period last year. The city is on track to finish the first quarter with killings and shootings near their lowest in decades.

Mamdani said the killing is a reminder that much work still needs to be done to reduce gun violence.