A one-year-old baby was shot in the stomach during a cookout at a Brooklyn area park on Sunday and tragically succumbed to the injuries, authorities confirmed Monday. The tragedy comes amid a widespread increase in violence in multiple U.S. cities in recent weeks.
The child was shot around 11:35 p.m. in front of Raymond Bush Playground on Madison Street and Marcus Garvey Boulevard in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the New York Post reported Monday, citing police sources.
Three men, ages 27, 35, and 36, were also hit by gunfire during the apparent shootout. They’re all expected to survive.
“As many as three suspects drove up in a dark-colored SUV and parked in front of the victims,” the Post reported. “They then hopped out of the vehicle and opened fire, sources said.”
After being rushed to Maimonides Medical Center, the infant was pronounced dead around 2:30 a.m.
The same night as the cookout shooting, the Post noted, two boys, ages 12 and 15, were injured from separate shootings in Harlem and Brooklyn.
The gut-wrenching shooting of the innocent child happened on the same day Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) rationalized the massive surge of crime in New York City as a byproduct of pandemic-related poverty.
On Sunday, Ocasio-Cortez seemingly blamed the surge in NYC crime on financial struggles sparked by the coronavirus response, claiming that folks are “scared to pay their rent.” She also claimed the police cutbacks in NYC are “not real.”
The congresswoman’s remarks come on the heels of NYPD cutbacks and incessant calls by far-left activists to “defund the police,” which were echoed by AOC herself.
“So why is this uptick in crime happening?” Ocasio-Cortez asked, adding,
Well, let’s think about it. Do we think this has to do with the fact there’s record unemployment in the United States right now? The fact that people are at a level of economic desperation that we have not seen since the Great Recession. Maybe this has to do with the fact that people aren’t paying their rent and are scared to pay their rent, and so they go out and they need to feed their child and they don’t have money so you maybe have to, they’re put in a position where they feel like they either need to shoplift some bread or go hungry that night.
“Maybe it’s the fact that unemployment provisions have not been given to [everyone],” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “May it’s because the fact that people, some people still haven’t gotten their stimulus checks yet.”
The Daily Wire noted that the congresswoman’s suggestion “ignores the widespread looting of luxury stores that happened in the city during the recent riots. It also ignores the fact that New York City Democrat Mayor Bill de Blasio resisted calls from top Democrats and Republicans to deploy the National Guard to restore order and stop the violence and looting.”
Moreover, contrary to AOC’s general take, the spike in crime includes violent activity, such as the senseless and tragic shooting of the one-year-old infant on Sunday.