BABY ‘KILLER’
Cops: We got guy whose stray shot hit 1-year-old boy sitting in stroller
The accused shooter in last summer’s horrific stray-bullet shooting of a 1-year-old boy outside a Brooklyn playground was ordered held without bail Thursday for the death that shocked a pandemic-stricken city and rattled Mayor de Blasio.
Dashawn Austin, 25, was busted Wednesday for murder and attempted murder in the gang-related July 12 gunfire that left the toddler dead and three men wounded outside the Raymond Bush Playground on Madison St. in Bedford-Stuyvesant, authorities said.
Little Davell Gardner was sitting in a stroller when struck by the bullet about 11:15 p.m. as relatives of his mother gathered for a family cookout on a summer night. The celebration ended as the child took a bullet to his stomach in the nightmarish attack, with his helpless relatives looking on.
The arrest reopened old wounds for Davell’s paternal grandmother Samantha Gardner, who was overwhelmed after learning a suspect was in custody.
“It’s very emotional,” she told the Daily News at her home Thursday. “My son and I ... we just have to digest it. Everything is being brought up again.”
Austin, wearing a skullcap and a white Under Armour shirt, stood silently during his arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court, where he pleaded not guilty. The alleged getaway driver, identified as Akeem Artis, 24, was also arrested in the case.
Austin is a member of the Hoolie Gang, a local crew at war with the rival 900 St. Gang, according to police sources. The arrest was announced by Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez Thursday as he detailed a 63-count indictment charging 18 Hoolie members with a wide array of criminal charges, including four murders and eight non-fatal shootings.
“Insidious gang violence as we allege in this case has taken and traumatized far too many lives, including many innocents such as Davell Gardner — a bright and loved baby boy with his whole life ahead of him,” Gonzalez said.
Austin was one of two shooters who exited a dark-colored Audi SUV and started blasting, with one of the bullets hitting the innocent baby in the stomach as he sat inside the stroller, authorities said. The child died shortly afterward at Maimonides Medical Center. The second shooter has not been caught.
Police said Austin was the passenger in the Audi, part of a three-car caravan that included a “blocker” car, a “chase” car and a “shooter” car.
In a deviously calculated plan, one of the vehicles sped off before the shooting, drawing suspicious nearby police away from the scene. The two other vehicles turned down Madison St. and circled the park before Austin and the second shooter opened fire, according to authorities.
The shooting amplified the outrage surrounding rampant violence that erupted citywide last summer. De Blasio appeared visibly shaken when he visited Davell’s mother after the shooting, and then held a moment of silence during his daily press briefing.
“None of us can imagine what she’s going through, but we’re going to be there for her,” de Blasio said at the time. “We’re going to come help her in every way and try to make sure no other mom goes through it. It was horrible to see the sheer pain and shock that she’s in.”
The suspect was already behind bars on Rikers Island — charged with the March 3, 2020, murder of Janile Whitted, 26, outside the Amour Cabaret on Nostrand Ave. near Herkimer St. in Bedford-Stuyvesant — when linked to Davell’s murder.
Whitted was repeatedly shot in the chest outside the self-described bikini bar around 3:15 a.m., cops said.
Detectives always suspected Austin in the playground shooting and brought the gang member in for questioning after he was connected to Whitted’s murder.
The indictment includes the murders of both Davell and Whitted. Three men were wounded in the hail of gunfire that killed the child, the firstborn for his parents.
Exhausting their leads, cops in November offered a $20,000 reward for information about the gunmen in the hopes of shaking loose fresh clues.
Austin was additionally charged with assault, attempted assault, criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment. His last known address was in the Glenwood Houses in Flatlands.