Woman shot in head, killed while pushing baby stroller in New York City; suspect arrested
A 20-year-old woman died after being shot in the head while pushing her 3-month-old in a stroller in Manhattan's Upper East Side Wednesday night. A suspect was arrested Friday in connection with the slaying.
New York City Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said in a news conference Wednesday that the victim was pushing the stroller when a man approached from behind and "fired a single shot into her head from a very close range," then fled. The toddler was not injured.
The victim was rushed to a hospital and pronounced dead about an hour later, Sewell said. She was identified Thursday as 20-year-old Azsia Johnson of Staten Island.
"Azsia didn't deserve this," family friend Ebony Paulin told CBS News York. "I don't think nobody would want [to] hurt Azsia because she's a good person."
On Friday evening, Sewell reported that a suspect, 22-year-old Isaac Argro, had been taken into custody on charges of murder and criminal possession of a weapon in connection with the shooting.
The arrest comes after sources told CBS New York Thursday that investigators did not believe the shooting to be random, but considered the father of the child — a 22-year-old man with a criminal record — a person of interest. Police did not immediately confirm if Argro was the person of interest they had been seeking.
The sources had told CBS New York that detectives had obtained surveillance video of Johnson meeting with the child's father at some point prior to the shooting.
Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, speaking at Wednesday's news conference, pointed to the "problem of the over-proliferation of guns on our streets."
"When a woman is pushing a baby carriage down the block, and is shot at point-blank range, it shows just how this national problem is impacting families," Adams said. "It doesn't matter if you are on the Upper East Side, or East New York, Brooklyn. The oversaturation of guns endangers people."
