Upper East Side shooting: Azsia Johnson reported domestic violence but police ‘failed’ her, says mom

An aspiring nurse and young mother-of-two was identified as the woman who was shot dead at point-blank range while pushing her baby in a stroller through Manhattan.

Azsia Johnson, 20, died on Wednesday night after she reportedly planned to meet up with the father of her three-month-old infant.

Ms Johnson’s mother Lisa Desort said her daughter had been the victim of domestic violence by her baby’s father and that the family had filed multiple reports to the police – but that authorities had failed to protect her.

The Independent’s Rachel Sharp has the full story:

The Upper East Side is one of the most affluent and safest neighbourhoods in New York City.

Based in Manhattan, the average house price is $1.3m – almost four times the New York average of $325,000, according to CensusReporter.

The average income per capita is $117,359, almost three times the New York average of $40,898.

As well as being home to some of the richest New Yorkers, it is also home to the mayor’s official residence of Gracie Mansion.

Crime is low compared to other parts of the city, with the 19th police precinct recording just two murders in 2021 while Azsia Johnson’s murder marks the first in the area this year.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced the launch of a new unit to tackle gun violence on Thursday – just hours after the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Azsia Johnson.

The DNA Gun Crimes Unit will speed up gun crime analysis, with forensic experts able to provide DNA results in half the current time of 60 days.

A staggering $2.5m is being channeled into the new unit, which will be overseen by New York City’s medical examiner’s office.

In a press conference announcing the unit’s launch, the mayor said it will play a “major role” in tackling gun violence in the city.

“This is a central part of our apparatus in fighting gun violence and sometime we missed this piece but without this piece, we can’t take guns off our streets and deal with people who are dangerous to our city,” he said.

The latest data released by the NYPD shows that crime has surged in New York City in the last year but that the number of shootings has actually fallen.

A total of 58,417 crimes were reported across the five boroughs in the year ending 26 June 2022 – a rise of 37.8 percent from 42,383 crimes reported in the same period in 2021.

However the number of shootings is down by 12.1 percent from 710 to 624 in the same timeframe.

The number of shooting victims has also fallen by 8.6 percent in the last year from 817 in 2021 to 747 in 2022.

New York mayor Eric Adams has blamed the “oversaturation of guns” after a 20-year-old mother was shot dead while she was pushing her three-month-old toddler in a stroller.

“It doesn’t matter if you are on the Upper East Side or East New York. The oversaturation of guns endangers people and repeatedly leaves our criminal justice system to continue actions like this,” Mr Adams said.

“It is what is making New York City Police Department and other law enforcement agencies here in New York and across the country difficult to fight this issue.”

Watch:

The father of the three-month-old baby being pushed in a stroller when the child’s mother was killed in an execution-style shooting in Manhattan’s Upper East Side has been identified as a person of interest in the murder, according to police sources and family members.

The man – who has not been publicly named – had allegedly assaulted the victim while she was pregnant and she was unsure if she now wanted him in their child’s life, law enforcement officials said.

Rachel Sharp reports:

An aspiring nurse and young mother-of-two has been identified as the woman who was shot dead at point-blank range while pushing her baby in a stroller through the Upper East Side of Manhattan on Wednesday night.

Ms Johnson’s mother Lisa Desort said her daughter had been the victim of domestic violence at the hands of her baby’s father and that the family had filed multiple reports to the police – but that authorities had failed to protect her.

Rachel Sharp has more: