Gray, overcast skies matched the heartbroken mood in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on Thursday morning — one day after a 7-month-old girl was shot dead with a stray bullet in a horrific crime that shocked the city.
Little Kaori Patterson-Moore had been pushed in her stroller by her mother on a warm, sunny afternoon near the corner of Humboldt and Moore Streets just after 1:20 p.m. on April 1 when the fatal bullet was fired by a suspect riding on a moped with another individual.
The infant — who relatives said had just begun taking her first steps days earlier — was struck in the head. Desperate efforts to save her life were to no avail; she was pronounced dead a short time later at Woodhull Hospital.
The morning after the tragedy, local residents shook their heads and expressed despair as they left their homes for their morning errands. Meanwhile, charges were pending against one of two suspects involved in the shooting — and a manhunt for the other perpetrator continued.
Police officers were stationed at the corner of Humboldt and Moore Streets, keeping watch over the crime scene. About a block away, just outside of 140 Moore St., where Patterson-Moore’s father resides, distraught residents placed hundreds of candles in honor of the child.
Some of the candles were shaped with hearts and the little victim’s initials; others were placed next to a pink stuffed bunny.
The baby’s grandmother, who declined to be identified, told amNewYork that Patterson-Moore was only just starting to take her first steps.
“This doesn’t define her. Everybody loves her. She was just starting to call me mom. She was just starting to take her first steps. She was close with all her family and nephews and uncles,” the grandmother said.
Mia Torres, 19, told amNewYork that she had been a family friend of the father for several years and rushed to the scene after hearing the mother scream.
“She was screaming, but she wasn’t with the baby. The baby had already left with the dad,” Torres said. “She was screaming: ‘My daughter got shot. My daughter got shot.’ I was going to drive her to the hospital but the cops took her,” Torres said. “I’ve been going crazy since last night, like I can’t stop posting the baby on my social media.”
Torres spent the morning relighting the candles and added that she briefly spoke with the child’s mother.
“She said she was trying to get some sleep, that she was gonna give me a call whenever she woke up,” Torres said.
According to Torres and other witnesses, both parents had the 7-month-old and their 2-year-old son with them at the time of the deadly shooting. Upon hearing the shots, the mother and father and baby sought refuge at a nearby bodega.
A worker at the Sem Sem Deli said no one realized Patterson-Moore had been shot until the mother and baby were in the store. The worker also stated that the 2-year-old boy was grazed, something Torres said she also witnessed.
“He was crying. ‘I want my mom. Where is my sister? I want my mom,’” Torres recalled.
The incident has also taken a heavy toll on those who did not know the family directly but say they are sick of such tragedies.
Local Gregory Martinez said he heard the tragic shooting unfold that afternoon from his apartment window, recalling hearing about three shots being fired. He said he did not realize the gravity of the situation until he later left his home and saw a legion of police officers and the expanding crime scene. According to him, the neighborhood is no stranger to tragedy.
“The community has to get back together. We need to start making changes. This is not the first time. We had a shooting about a year and a half ago on that corner, where a young man shot a guy,” Martinez told amNewYork. “So, it’s sad. It’s very sad that a seven-month-old child who hasn’t lived yet lost their life.”
Another local resident, a 40-year-old woman whose name was withheld by amNewYork, said she was alerted to the shooting by her children’s school nearby, which went on lockdown.
“I got a text from after school saying there was a shooting, and that we should go to the schools and pick up our children. They put a major lockdown in place yesterday. So that’s how I knew what happened,” said the 40-year-old woman, who told amNewYork that she has lived in the area since 2018. “I had two kids in school at that time, and I got the text to go get them from the after-school. I had to tell my kids, ‘I’m sorry, guys, we’re not going outside today.’”
“Everybody knows that family. Everybody knows the family. Everybody knows the kids they play in front of the building. She just started life,” she added.
The community’s sadness was reflected in the change in the weather, the 40-year-old woman told amNewYork.
“As I came back to the building, there was a dark cloud over the storm, a big, dark, heavy cloud with a little bit of rain right there. To me, I said, the little girl passed away? Because ever since she passed yesterday, it’s been looking like this, the weather, the air,” the woman said. “Every time I talk about her, the aura in this neighborhood right now is dead.”
