Baby killed by stray bullet after drive-by on Brooklyn sidewalk, police say

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A 7-month-old baby in a stroller was killed by a stray bullet in Brooklyn on Wednesday afternoon after a drive-by shooting, police said. Authorities said a man on a moped fired at a group gathered at a street corner while other children were present, and the child was hit.

Police said the attack unfolded around 1:20 p.m. when two men sped down a street on a moped. The man on the back of the vehicle fired at least two shots at the corner, according to authorities, and police said no other injuries from the shooting were reported.

Authorities said the shooting was believed to be gang-related and that the child was an unintended victim. At a briefing near the scene, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani described the death as an immediate loss to a family and said it should serve as a reminder that gun violence prevention work still needs to continue.

Police said the moped fled the area but then 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 shoes.

Tisch said one of the men on the moped was hurt in the crash and was 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 late Wednesday.

Investigators used neighborhood security cameras to track where the moped traveled in the minutes after the shooting, Tisch said. At the same briefing, Tisch said the city was facing “a terrible day” and described the incident as a tragedy that “shocks the conscience.”

The child’s death came amid a sustained period of dropping crime in New York City, according to police reporting carried in the briefing. Through Sunday, the NYPD recorded 52 killings so far in 2026, down 29% from the same period last year, and the city was on track to finish the first quarter with killings and shootings near their lowest in decades, the report said. Mamdani said the killing showed that “much work still needs to be done to reduce gun violence.”