An 11-month-old baby was tragically caught in the crossfire of a gunfight in the Bronx Wednesday evening, police said.
According to Deputy Chief Timothy McCormack, the heartbreaking incident occurred during an alleged firefight between two men. An unidentified male chased another man before firing two shots, one of these bullets hit the child.
Law enforcement sources said the baby girl was in the backseat of her mother’s parked car on 198th Street and Valentine Avenue at 6:48 p.m. on Jan. 19 while the father was grocery shopping when a bullet penetrated the back window, hitting the infant in the left cheek.
Responding officers discovered the mother clinging to the child before having them whisked to St. Barnabas Hospital. The young girl remains in stable but critical condition, and was later transferred to Weill Cornell Medical Center.
“This is completely unacceptable in our city that a 11-month-old child is shot. Her birthday is going to be in a few days. We were here last night with a police officer being shot on the street. At a time, the Bronx last year recovered just under 1,300 firearms off our streets. This is unacceptable and needs to stop,” Chief McCormack said in disgust at a Wednesday night press conference.
Anyone with information in regard to this shooting 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 Crime Stoppers website or on Twitter @NYPDTips. All calls are strictly confidential.
