The heartbroken parents of the seven-month-old shot in broad daylight in New York City recalled the horrifying moment their baby girl was taken from them.
The baby, Kaori, had just learnt to say ‘mama’ and was placed in her stroller next to her brother on Wednesday when gunshots suddenly rang out on the streets of Brooklyn.
‘We thought it was fireworks,’ Lianna Charles-Moore, Kaori’s heartbroken mother, told the New York Post.
‘But my son jumped out of the stroller, and I picked him up and carried him.’
The 20-year-old mother said she was hugging her son and looked to her left to see her daughter, who now lay motionless.
‘She was shot in the head. She was just bleeding. It was just too much,’ she recalled through tears.
Charles-Moore told the outlet that Kaori’s brother was grazed by the bullet on his back, and he has been asking for his sister ever since the fateful shooting.
‘My daughter was innocent. She didn’t deserve that. We were just going outside to go get her a few things, and my son a few things,’ the grieving mother continued.
Kaori had just learnt to say ‘mama’ and was sat in her stroller when gunshots rang through East Williamsburg on Wednesday afternoon and struck the seven-month-old
Kaori was struck by the flying bullet near Humboldt and Moore Street in Brooklyn just before 1.25pm by two suspects who fled on a moped
Charles-Moore told the outlet that Kaori’s brother was grazed by the bullet on his back, and he has been asking for his sister who was shot in the head
‘My son got impacted with everything that happened, so it was just too much, because they could have killed my son and my daughter.’
Charles-Moore said Kaori had just passed the milestone of saying ‘mama,’ and had also began to crawl, the Post reported.
The infant’s grandmother, Linda Moore Oyinkoinyan, said she collapsed at the news while at her job as a school teacher.
‘I was supposed to get them today or tomorrow. I’m a teacher, so I have off, and I was going to take them,’ she said.
‘My daughter called me at my job. She was screaming. I had to hang up on her. She was scaring me. She said, “They shot Kaori in the head.” She was screaming. She was frantic. I just passed out in the class,’ she recalled, as her grandson took her hand, the outlet reported.
The heartbroken grandmother remembered Kaori as a ‘beautiful spirit,’ who was always smiling.
‘She was loving. She was caring. Always smiling. She was very smart. The baby was very beautiful. She brought a lot of people together,’ Oyinkoinyan recalled.
‘It’s heartbreaking.’
Photos emerged of two suspects wanted in connection to the shooting, with one seen sitting on the back of a scooter while holding what appeared to be a gun
A manhunt is now underway for the two suspects, the moped they were using was found ditches a few streets away from the scene
At a press conference for an unrelated matter, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said: ‘It is a tragedy that this baby was shot and killed’
Kaori was struck by the flying bullet near Humboldt and Moore Street in Brooklyn just before 1.25pm.
Photos emerged of two suspects wanted in connection to the shooting, with one seen sitting on the back of a scooter while holding what appeared to be a gun.
Kaori was rushed to Woodhull Hospital, also in Brooklyn, but could not be saved and was pronounced dead shortly after.
A woman who was inside the facility described the horror as the child was brought in, saying: ‘I was in the hospital when the father brought the baby in.
‘The dad brought the baby in. The dad was screaming, ‘Save my baby!’ And the mother was screaming at the top of her lungs.’
A manhunt is now underway for the two suspects, the moped they were using was found ditches a few streets away from the scene.
NBC New York’s chopper captured images of the street in the aftermath, with crime scene tape covering the area which was swarmed with officers.
At a press conference for an unrelated matter, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said: ‘It is a tragedy that this baby was shot and killed.’
Mayor Mamdani said he would be joined at a press conference with Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch later today, adding his ‘heart breaks’ for the family.
Police are now offering $3,500 for any information relating to Kaori’s murder.
