The father of 7-month-old Kaori Patterson-Moore may not have been the intended target after all when his daughter was struck in her stroller by a stray bullet, the Brooklyn D.A. said Tuesday after the suspects were indicted for murder by a grand jury.
Accused shooter Amuri Greene, 21, was hit with a raft of charges including murder, attempted murder, assault, and weapon possession for the slaying of little Kaori on April 1.
Meanwhile Matthew Rodriguez, 18, who was allegedly operating the scooter Greene was riding on the back of when shots rang out near Moore and Humboldt Sts. in East Williamsburg on April 1, has waived extradition during a court hearing in Monroe County, Pa.
Though Greene told police he was gunning for the girl’s dad, according to prosecutors at his initial arraignment last week, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez partially walked that back Thursday.
“I am not prepared to say today definitively that the father was the target. We know that he was intending to shoot a person in that crowd, and the baby’s father was among those people in that crowd,” Gonzalez told reporters.
“But I don’t think it’s completely 100 percent clear to me that this was in fact the person they were shooting that and that they knew who he was.”
Kaori’s mom has been adamant her fiancee could not have been the intended target.
“We’re gonna continue to make sure to support the family and that’s why I think it’s misguided, really, to worry about who they were intending to shoot,” Gonzalez said. “We know who the actual victim was in this case.”
Rodriguez is expected to be returned to Brooklyn to face murder charges within 10 days, officials said.
“We have promised this family justice,” Gonzalez said. “We will hold these men accountable.”
Kaori’s 2-year-old brother, who was also in the stroller, was wounded in the shooting, and it was revealed in court Tuesday that a 9-year-old child was pushing the stroller.
“Physically, he’s gonna survive his injuries. He’s healing,” Gonzalez said of the 2-year-old brother. “Emotionally, my understanding is that this is very hard for him. He’s asking for his sister and he’s been traumatized.”
During their harried getaway following the 1:20 p.m. shooting, Rodriguez crashed the scooter a few blocks away. Greene suffered a broken leg in the crash and was quickly arrested.
Greene remains in the hospital and was not present in Brooklyn Supreme Court as Assistant D.A. Jonathan Visotzky read off the charges Tuesday. He’ll be formally arraigned on the indictment at a later date.
Rodriguez fled to Pennsylvania, where he was grabbed by NYPD detectives with the U.S. Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force on Friday.
During Greene’s initial arraignment on Friday night, Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Jordan Rossman said the gunman “missed his target but shot two of the target’s children, fatally shooting a 7-month-old baby in the head and wounding the baby’s 2-year-old brother.”
Kaori was sitting in a stroller when a bullet allegedly fired by Greene went through the infant’s skull. The stray bullet also grazed her older brother’s back.
The tot’s mother, Lianna Moore, raced her children to a nearby bodega, where she realized Kaori’s face was bloodied. Her father ran with the child to Woodhull Hospital about seven blocks away, but doctors couldn’t save her.
Courtesy of Lianna Moore
Kaori Patterson-Moore, a 7-month-old girl, was fatally shot near Humboldt and Moore Sts. in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. (Courtesy of Lianna Moore)
Within hours of the shooting, detectives began working on the theory that the gunman was aiming at Kaori’s dad, who they believe has links to members of the Money Over Everything gang in the Bushwick Houses.
The gang, known as MOE, is in the middle of an ongoing dispute with a crew Greene is associated with from the Marcy Houses, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Thursday.
After the vigil, Kaori’s dad released a letter to the media. Describing his anguish over the devastating loss of his daughter, he called it an “unbearable pain” and said that Kaori was one of his “greatest achievements in life.” He said that after Kaori’s birth, he was determined to turn his life around.
