NEW YORK — The ex-boyfriend of a New York City woman shot dead Wednesday as she pushed their infant daughter in a stroller has been arrested and charged with killing her, police said Friday.
Slain mother Azsia Johnson’s family identified suspect Isaac Argro as the baby’s father and said he routinely abused Johnson, beating her during her pregnancy and threatening to kill her.
Argro, 22, is charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon, police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said. Information on a lawyer who could speak on his behalf was not immediately available.
Johnson, 20, was shot around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday near the intersection of Lexington Avenue and 95th Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. She was pronounced dead at a hospital.
The 3-month-old in the stroller was not hurt, but was taken to a hospital for medical evaluation, police said.
“More guns in our city means more lives lost,” Mayor Eric Adams said during a news conference Wednesday at the site of the shooting. “It means more babies crying, as those who love them lie dead.”
New York, like many other U.S. cities, has contended with rising concern about violent crime, though New York City police statistics show shootings have declined about 12% and murders are down 13% so far this year, compared with the same period last year. But murders remain at their second-highest level since 2012.
Also on Friday, New York’s legislature approved a sweeping overhaul of the state’s handgun licensing rules, seeking to preserve some limits after the Supreme Court said people have a right to carry a handgun for personal protection.