The gunmen and their getaway car are seen in surveillance video in a deadly shooting from Thursday, June 15, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Metropolitan Police Department)
Two men armed with assault rifles fired into a car, fatally wounding a young woman who was 8 months pregnant but who gave birth at a hospital to a baby girl — now in critical condition — on a busy Washington, D.C. street as authorities hunted the murderers.
The shooting killed the passenger in the car, Samya Gill, 22, who gave birth at a hospital before she died, police said in a news release.
Her mother told Fox affiliate 7News that she saw her new granddaughter on Friday night. She said the child was not struck by a bullet but remained in critical condition and was doing “a little better today.”
“She’s beautiful,” she said, the station reported. “She’s just gorgeous.
“I just really hope they catch whoever did that to my daughter.”
On a fundraising website to support costs for her newborn, she said Baby Zailey was due within a few weeks, and the trauma unit had to do an emergency C-section to save her granddaughter’s life.
“Unfortunately, she’s not in the best condition herself (BUT GOD)! This is really devastating for my family and a huge financial burden,” the site said.
The unidentified driver of the car also suffered non-life-threatening wounds, police said. There were no details about his relationship to Gill.
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In a news conference, Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Chief Andre Wright called it a heinous act and urged those responsible and those who witnessed it to come forward.
“This is a brazen act,” he said. “You can’t do something as heinous as this, and the community not know something about it.”
Surveillance video shows two men armed with assault rifles — one wearing a white hoodie with dark pants, the other wearing all dark clothing — get out of a white four-door sedan and fire into another vehicle before fleeing.
The victims’ car managed to travel about a mile before stopping in a busy commercial area.
Police announced a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for 11:20 a.m. Thursday shooting in the 300 block of 37th Street, Southeast.
Whether the victims knew their attackers was unknown, but police called it a targeted incident.
“We know that this was an isolated event,” Wright said. “We know that this vehicle drove into the block, passed several people that were out there in the community, got out and ran up to this vehicle, and fired into this vehicle.”
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