A man is charged with second-degree murder after an 11-year-old girl was killed and two other children were injured during a weekend shooting in New York, authorities said.
Chavez R. Ocasio, 23, is being held on various charges at the Onondaga County Justice Center, including violating his parole, physical evidence and criminal possession of a second-degree weapon, according to online prison records. His first court appearance is scheduled for Tuesday.
According to Syracuse police, three girls were sitting in the back seat of a car when someone in a passing vehicle opened fire on them around 7pm on Sunday.
A woman driving the car “chased away while being shot at,” Derek McGork, deputy chief of Syracuse police, told a news conference on Monday. “After realizing the children were injured, she stopped and called 911.”
The children were taken to Upstate University Hospital. The baby, identified as Dior Harris, did not survive. The other girls, 3-year-old and 8-year-old sisters, were stable, Kentra Buckner, police chief in Syracuse, said Monday. Their names were not disclosed by the authorities.
Dir’s mother, Desiree Seymore, told CNY Central, CNY Central, that her baby is loving, playful and full of life. Family members began preparing for her first birthday on April 29.
“She was just a baby,” she said. “She was so strong. She did not even cry when it happened, but we lost her.”
Seymore and another woman in the vehicle were not injured in the shooting.
Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh called the shooting “incomprehensible”.
“It’s a nightmare, an unimaginable tragedy,” Walsh said. The shooting took place less than a mile from his home. “How can someone wisely point a gun at a car in broad daylight with children in it and pull the trigger?”
Investigators did not disclose a motive or say what role they believe Ocasio played in the deadly shooting. It was unclear on Tuesday whether police intended to make additional arrests in the case.
The Associated Press contributed.