A 22-year-old man has been charged with murder after a woman walking with her baby was gunned down on the street in New York on Wednesday.
The suspect is the ex-boyfriend of 20-year-old victim Azsia Johnson, her family said. Johnson was rushed to hospital after being shot on the Upper East Side, but later pronounced dead.
The suspect, identified as Isaac Argro, has been arrested and charged with the murder as well as for criminal possession of a weapon, said police commissioner Keechant Sewell.
Police said the motive for the murder was still being investigated.
Argro had been named as the person of interest earlier on Wednesday, and was picked up from Brooklyn and taken to Manhattan’s 19th Precinct.
Johnson was killed at around 8.30pm on Wednesday night, while she was walking with her three-month-old baby in a stroller near a playground at East 95th Street and Lexington Avenue.
The infant was not hurt in the attack, though she was taken to the hospital for a medical checkup. The slain woman’s family has identified Argro as the baby’s father.
Earlier in January, the police responded to a call when Johnson allegedly pushed him saying she didn’t want the father in the baby’s life. But the records did not indicate an order of protection being filed, reported CBS News.
Before the shooting, Johnson had allegedly messaged her family informing them that she was going to meet Argro to talk things out.
Her mother Lisa Desort told CW affiliate Pix 11 that Johnson was living at a shelter with her infant amid domestic issues with Argro and he had allegedly threatened to kill her.
“I need you to know that the city right now and the state failed my daughter,” she told CBS News during a vigil on Thursday night.
“We are going to find this person that’s guilty of this horrific crime. We are going to find him and bring him to justice,” New York City mayor Eric Adams had told reporters earlier on Thursday.
