Brooklyn DA Says Father of Slain Baby May Not Have Been Intended Shooting Target as Grand Jury Indicts Suspect

A Brooklyn grand jury has indicted a 21-year-old man on murder charges in the shooting death of 7-month-old Kaori Patterson-Moore, and the borough's district attorney said Tuesday that investigators cannot yet say for certain who the gunman was aiming at.

Amuri Greene faces counts including murder, attempted murder, assault and weapon possession in connection with the April 1 killing. Prosecutors allege he fired the shots near Moore and Humboldt Streets in East Williamsburg while riding on the back of a scooter. The scooter's alleged driver, 18-year-old Matthew Rodriguez, waived extradition at a hearing in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, and officials said he is expected to be brought back to Brooklyn within 10 days to face murder charges.

At Greene's initial arraignment last week, prosecutors said he told police he was targeting the baby's father. District Attorney Eric Gonzalez stepped back from that account on Tuesday. "I am not prepared to say today definitively that the father was the target," he told reporters. He said the shooter intended to hit someone in the crowd, and the baby's father was among those present, but it was not fully clear that he was the person targeted or that the suspects knew who he was.

The infant's mother has insisted her fiancé could not have been the intended target. Gonzalez said the question should not distract from the outcome. "We know who the actual victim was in this case," he said, adding that his office has promised the family justice and will hold the men accountable.

Kaori was in a stroller when, according to prosecutors, a bullet fired by Greene passed through her skull. The same round grazed the back of her 2-year-old brother, who was also in the stroller. Court proceedings on Tuesday revealed that a 9-year-old child had been pushing the stroller. Gonzalez said the toddler is expected to recover physically but is struggling emotionally. "He's asking for his sister and he's been traumatized," the district attorney said.

After the 1:20 p.m. shooting, Rodriguez crashed the scooter a few blocks away during the getaway. Greene broke his leg in the crash and was quickly arrested. He remains hospitalized and did not appear in Brooklyn Supreme Court on Tuesday, when Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Visotzky read the charges. He will be formally arraigned on the indictment at a later date. Rodriguez fled to Pennsylvania, where NYPD detectives working with the U.S. Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested him Friday.

The child's mother, Lianna Moore, rushed her children to a nearby bodega, where she saw that Kaori's face was bloodied. The baby's father then ran with her to Woodhull Hospital, about seven blocks away, but doctors could not save her.

Within hours of the shooting, detectives began working on the theory that the gunman was aiming at the baby's father, who they believe has ties to members of the Money Over Everything gang, known as MOE, in the Bushwick Houses. NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Thursday that the gang is in an ongoing dispute with a crew from the Marcy Houses that Greene is associated with.

After a vigil, Kaori's father released a letter to the media describing an "unbearable pain" and calling his daughter one of his "greatest achievements in life." He wrote that after her birth he was determined to turn his life around.