N.Y. cops: Baby’s dad was shooter’s target

NEW YORK — Police investigating the death of a 1-year-old boy shot in the head in his stroller said yesterday they believe his father was the target.

Authorities have some leads in the killing of Antiq Hennis on a Brooklyn street on Sunday night and believe his death may be gang-related, police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. Antiq’s father, Anthony Hennis, has a criminal record and wasn’t cooperating with police in their investigation, said Kelly, who didn’t elaborate.

Hennis, 21, had just gone to pick up Antiq at the home of the baby’s mother, Cherise Miller, and take him to visit Hennis’ grandmother, police said. Hennis put the boy in the stroller and was pushing him across a street in the Brownsville neighborhood when shots rang out, police said.

Hennis’ grandmother, Lenore Steele, said she heard shots before Hennis ran up to her.

“And he fell on the ground and said, ‘Grandma, my baby got shot! My baby got shot, Grandma!’” said Steele, flanked by community group leaders and mayoral candidate Bill Thompson. “He was such a beautiful little baby, smiling and talking to everybody.”

Grief and outrage over Antiq’s shooting loomed over the annual West Indian Day Parade about a mile and a half away, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the killing “a tragedy for his family, for this community, for the entire city” and political candidates talked about gun violence.

Four shots were fired, and one hit Antiq in the left side of his head; he was declared dead on arrival at a hospital.

Hennis and Miller couldn’t immediately be reached for comment yesterday. Possible phone numbers for their homes were disconnected or rang unanswered, the offices of attorneys who may have represented Hennis were closed, and activists who spoke at a news conference said Miller wouldn’t be making a statement yesterday.

Bishop Willie Billips, who drove the parents to the hospital to identify the body of their only child, said, “The family is suffering right now.”

“To have to take a young couple to identify their baby’s body is horrible,” said Billips, of the Church of Faith, Hope and Charity.

AP PHOTOS TAKEN TOO SOON: Mourners, above, visit a memorial yesterday for Antiq Hennis, pictured left, in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Hennis, 1, was killed Sunday by a bullet police say was meant for his father.