Police confirm an 11-month-old baby girl was shot in the Bedford Park section of the Bronx at E 198th Street and Valentine Avenue at 6.45 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 19. Police said the child was inside a white, parked car with her mother at the time of the shooting, which took place in the 52nd precinct. The child’s father was inside a store at the time.

 

Police said the baby appears to have been shot unintentionally, as an innocent bystander, as one shooter was chasing and aiming a gun at one other person on the street. “She was not targeted,” a police spokesperson said. The shooter discharged his firearm twice. Police say the baby was struck in the face. Her blood-soaked jacket was seen at the scene. The baby’s mother called the police for assistance.

Watch as NYPD executives provide an update of an infant shot in the confines of the @NYPD52Pct. pic.twitter.com/RumIx282Pg

— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) January 20, 2022

 

The infant was initially intubated at St. Barnabas Hospital police said, and later transported to Weill Cornell Medical Center, where she is in critical but stable condition.

Chief Timothy McCormack, chief of the Bronx detectives unit said detectives were interviewing witnesses and gathering video evidence. No suspects have been arrested at this time. He provided an overview of the situation at the scene and appealed for witnesses to come forward. (Contact details are further below).

 

In response to a question as to what the reason for the shooting was, McCormack said, “It is very early in the investigation. The motive is being looked at very carefully right now.”

An 11-month old baby was shot tonight. I refuse to surrender our Borough to violence! We will not stop working, and we will get stuff done to make our streets safer. We are praying for her healing and recovery, as well as for her parents. pic.twitter.com/8XfP7i3Bl9

— Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson (@bronxbp) January 20, 2022

 

The police chief declined to confirm if the mother and daughter were from the local area, and said the bullet was of a small caliber. “Gosh, it is very difficult,” McCormack said, in response to a question about how difficult it was to imagine, as a parent what the baby’s mother must be feeling.

“This is completely unacceptable that in our City an 11-month-old child is shot.” he said. “That birthday is going to be in a few days. We were here last night with a police officer being shot on the street. At a time, the Bronx, last year, we recovered just under 1300 firearms off our streets. This is unacceptable and it needs to stop.”

We keep this young soul in our prayers tonight. She's hospitalized and in critical but stable condition. She should be safe at home.

We will not give up the fight to keep babies like her safe.

If you have any information on this shooting, please contact @NYPDNews immediately.

— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) January 20, 2022

 

Mayor Eric Adams and Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson were at the scene later and spoke to the media. Adams said, “I’m not going to surrender this City to violence. I’m not going to lead from the rear. I’m going to lead from the front.”

He added, “I’m going to be here with organizations, like these organizations: S.O.S. (Save our Streets), Lay the Guns Down, all of these community-based organizations are just asking for help. This is a team effort, and any time that we don’t put in place the right alternative to violence for the long-term impact and don’t deal with the immediate need to get guns off our streets, we are betraying this community. “

Adams continued, “When I hear people say that we should not incarcerate those who are discharging bullets of death through our community, they need to talk to this mother. They need to have a conversation with this mother, praying for her baby tonight,” he said. “We have to be honest about what’s happening here in the Bronx, the level of violence. We looked at the video. It was a total disregard for the people who walk these streets. This is not the City these children should grow up in. We need help from Albany,” he added.

Watch: Mayor Eric Adams speaks in the Bronx after baby girl was shot in the face https://t.co/rcolLk7Txh

— PIX11 News (@PIX11News) January 20, 2022

 

The mayor, the anger in his voice palpable, then spoke of the baby’s father’s horror at hearing his wife’s screams as he was coming out of a drug store, and seeing her holding her injured child in a pink, blood-stained coat. “It is unimaginable. It is unimaginable that this is happening in our City,” he said. “Unimaginable… this is an… an assault and an abandonment on all levels of government that we have an endless flow of guns.”

He added, “The police department, up here, made over a thousand gun apprehensions in this borough and they continue to flow without a problem. Tomorrow, when I’m in D.C., talking with the other mayors, we need to come up with an urban agenda to stop the flow of guns into our cities, our northern cities. If this was happening in affluent communities, you would see a different response,” he said.

The mayor was later seen interacting with a crowd that had gathered at the scene later, listening to their concerns.

Meanwhile, for her part, Gibson later said in response to the shooting, “An 11-month-old baby was shot tonight. I refuse to surrender our Borough to violence! We will not stop working, and we will get stuff done to make our streets safer. We are praying for her healing and recovery, as well as for her parents.”

 

Norwood News has previously reported on a number of occasions on the many different events and initiatives that continue to be held across the borough to counter gun violence. When Gun Violence Awareness Month was marked with various events last October, the borough had seen a 271 percent increase in shootings compared to the same period the previous year.

Get out of the cold this Saturday and join us for free, high quality, youth sports programming in all five boroughs. Please click on the link for locations near you. https://t.co/ingAyqBwoC@SNLNYC @QueensDAKatz @BronxDAClark @ManhattanDA @BrooklynDA @StatenIslandDA pic.twitter.com/SeWKgBupXi

— Deputy Commissioner for Community Partnerships (@NYPDCommPartner) January 14, 2022

As of Jan. 16, year-to-date shooting incidents in the Bronx were up 20 percent, compared to the same period last year.

 

Residents were advised by police to expect vehicle delays in the area which was cordoned off for investigation.

 

Due to a police activity, please avoid the vicinity of East 198 Street and Valentine Ave in the Bronx. Expect emergency vehicles & delays in the surrounding area. pic.twitter.com/b8lLPYNeNw

— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) January 20, 2022

 

Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/ or on Twitter @NYPDTips.

All calls are strictly confidential.

Editor’s Note: In an earlier version of this story, it was reported that the baby was brought to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, as confirmed initially by the NYPD by phone. This was later corrected.