The thug accused of gunning down a 7-month-old girl in her stroller pushed by her parents confessed he was aiming at the infant’s dad during the botched Brooklyn drive-by, according to court papers.
Amuri Greene, 21, told cops he was shooting at his “intended target” Jamari Patterson, the father of tragic tot Kaori Patterson-Moore, when he opened fire from the back of a scooter last week in East Williamsburg, a criminal complaint revealed.
The infant — who just started saying “mama” — was scooped up by Patterson near Humboldt Street and Moore Street and rushed to Woodhull Hospital but could not be saved.
Greene “missed his target, but shot two of the target’s children — fatally shooting a 7-month-old baby in the head and wounding the baby’s 2-year-old brother,” Assistant District Attorney Jordan Rossman said in Brooklyn Criminal Court at Greene’s arraignment Friday night.
The bullet that killed Kaori went through her head and grazed her older brother as the pair sat in a double stroller, cops said.
The suspected triggerman fled the scene with alleged getaway driver Matthew Rodriguez before the pair crashed their moped into a car nearby. Greene flipped off the scooter and broke his leg, landing him in a hospital where police nabbed him. Rodriguez was caught days later in Pennsylvania and is expected to be extradited to the Big Apple.
The heartbreaking crime may have stemmed from senseless gang beef between rival housing projects, according to law enforcement officials.
Patterson has links to Bushwick Houses’ Money Over Everything (MOE) — a gang reported to have a social media-related feud with a crew in the Marcy Houses, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny said last week.
“We do know he has an association with some other MOE gang members,” Kenny added of the young father.
“He is not in our criminal group database as an MOE gang member, but based on the geography and where he was at that time, we’re looking into that aspect.”
But Kaori’s grief-stricken mom denied Patterson was the intended target.
“That’s not what it was,” Lianna Moore told the Daily News. “Everybody keeps saying that they came out to target my fiancé, but he had nothing to do with it.”
The devastated dad said he was trying to turn his life around when Kaori was born.
“I miss her so much. I want my baby back,” he wrote in a letter released to the media at a weekend vigil.
“[I] made sure her and her mom and her brother all stayed with me and vowed I changed my life for them through music,” the letter continued.
“The life I live, even getting different jobs to stay away from negativity, I begin to change things up. Which is facts.”
The accused gunman was held without bail on murder, attempted murder and assault charges.
Greene is set to appear in court on Tuesday.
