1-year-old is shot and killed at Brooklyn cookout

A 1-year-old baby boy was killed and three men were wounded Sunday when a gunman opened fire on people at a cookout in a Brooklyn park, police said.

The baby, Davell Gardner, was hit in the abdomen when shooting broke out at about 11:30pm near the Raymond Bush Playground in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighbourhood, police said. He was taken to Maimonides Medical Center, where he died.

Bullets also struck a 25-year-old man in the ankle, a 36-year-old man in the leg and a 27-year-old man in the groin. All were taken to hospitals and were expected to survive, police said.

People try to keep social distance as they enjoy a warm afternoon during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at Domino Park in Brooklyn, New York, US, May 16, 2020. Reuters

The death of the infant capped another weekend of gun violence in New York City, where shootings in June and July have risen sharply over the period last year.

Chief Jeffrey Maddrey, who was recently promoted to lead the New York City Police Department’s Community Affairs bureau, appealed for an end to the violence Monday morning, in a Twitter message, saying, “This. Must. STOP!”

In separate shootings Sunday night, two boys, ages 12 and 15, were among others wounded in the city over the weekend.

The 15-year-old was hit in the wrist at 9:10pm on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard near 143rd Street in Manhattan, the New York Post reported. The 12-year-old was shot in the leg at about 9:10pm on Prospect Place near Ralph Avenue in the Crown Heights neighbourhood in Brooklyn.

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