A man accused of fatally shooting a 7-month-old girl in Brooklyn admitted his intended target was the child’s father, according to court documents. The tragic incident unfolded during a botched drive-by shooting.
According to a criminal complaint, 21-year-old Amuri Greene confessed to police that he was aiming for Jamari Patterson, the father of the young victim, Kaori Patterson-Moore. The shooting occurred last week in East Williamsburg, with Greene allegedly firing shots from the back of a scooter.
The infant, who had just begun to say “mama,” was swiftly picked up by her father near Humboldt and Moore Streets and taken to Woodhull Hospital. Despite efforts to save her, Kaori could not be revived.
During Greene’s arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court on Friday night, Assistant District Attorney Jordan Rossman stated, “He missed his target but ended up shooting two of the target’s children — fatally injuring a 7-month-old baby in the head and wounding the 2-year-old brother.”
The fatal bullet passed through Kaori’s head and grazed her older brother as they sat together in a double stroller, according to police reports.
After the shooting, Greene and the alleged getaway driver, Matthew Rodriguez, attempted to flee the scene but crashed their moped into a car nearby. Greene was thrown from the scooter, injuring his leg, and was subsequently apprehended at the hospital. Rodriguez was later arrested in Pennsylvania and is expected to be extradited to New York City.
The heartbreaking crime may have stemmed from senseless gang beef between rival housing projects, according to law enforcement officials.
Patterson has links to Bushwick Houses’ Money Over Everything (MOE) — a gang reported to have a social media-related feud with a crew in the Marcy Houses, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny said last week.
“We do know he has an association with some other MOE gang members,” Kenny added of the young father.
“He is not in our criminal group database as an MOE gang member, but based on the geography and where he was at that time, we’re looking into that aspect.”
But Kaori’s grief-stricken mom denied Patterson was the intended target.
“That’s not what it was,” Lianna Moore told the Daily News. “Everybody keeps saying that they came out to target my fiancé, but he had nothing to do with it.”
The devastated dad said he was trying to turn his life around when Kaori was born.
“I miss her so much. I want my baby back,” he wrote in a letter released to the media at a weekend vigil.
“[I] made sure her and her mom and her brother all stayed with me and vowed I changed my life for them through music,” the letter continued.
“The life I live, even getting different jobs to stay away from negativity, I begin to change things up. Which is facts.”
The accused gunman was held without bail on murder, attempted murder and assault charges.
Greene is set to appear in court on Tuesday.
