Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

20-year-old woman shot and killed while pushing her infant in a stroller in New York

Crime scene tape surrounds the area on New York's Upper East Side, Thursday, June 30, 2022, where police say a 20-year-old woman was fatally shot Wednesday night while she pushed her infant in a stroller.
Jennifer Peltz
/
AP
Crime scene tape surrounds the area on New York's Upper East Side, Thursday, June 30, 2022, where police say a 20-year-old woman was fatally shot Wednesday night while she pushed her infant in a stroller.

Updated July 4, 2022 at 4:57 AM ET

An arrest has been made after a 20-year-old woman was shot in the head and killed Wednesday while pushing her infant in a stroller in New York City, according to police.

At about 8:23 p.m., Azsia Johnson, 20, was walking with her 3-month-old in Manhattan, near the corner of East 95th Street and Lexington Avenue, when a man dressed in a black hoodie and black sweatpants shot her "from very close range," NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said.

The man immediately fled on foot. Isaac Argro, 22, was arrested Friday and charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon, NYPD said. His next expected court appearance will happen this Thursday.

Johnson was found unconscious and transported to the hospital. She was pronounced dead at 9:20 p.m., Sewell said.

Sewell was unable to confirm if the shooting was a domestic violence incident.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said earlier in the day of the incident, he had a meeting with New York City Attorney General Letitia James about "ghost guns," or untraceable guns, and later met with New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand about gun trafficking.

"This entire day, we have been addressing the problem of the over-proliferation of guns on our street, how readily accessible they are, and how there is just no fear in using these guns on innocent New Yorkers, and this is a result of that," Adams said.

A vigil was held for the victim at the site of the shooting Thursday.

Gun arrests are at a 28-year high in New York City. There were 2,007 gun arrests from January to May, a year-to-year increase of 84 arrests from the first five months of 2021, NYPD said.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Ayana Archie