'Everybody talks about Black Lives Matter, what about baby lives?': Grandmother of One-Y-O boy shot dead in stroller near playground in latest NYC gun violence demands an end to the deadly shootings

Toddler Davell Gardner Jr. was killed and three men were wounded after two gunmen opened fire at a family cookout outside the Raymond Bush Playground in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood

The grandmother of a one-year-old boy killed in his stroller near a Brooklyn playground on Sunday has demanded an end to New York City's gun violence.

Samantha Gardner told Fox News on Monday: 'For the cowards that did this, you should be ashamed of yourself because everybody talk about black lives matter. What about baby lives? What about teenager lives? Like, you took an innocent child from her mother and father as well as the grandparents. I don't think it's fair.'

Toddler Davell Gardner Jr. was killed and three men were wounded after two gunmen opened fire at a family cookout outside the Raymond Bush Playground in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood Sunday evening. The three men were expected to survive. 

The boy's gran Samantha had earlier told The New York Daily News: 'So, when is it going to end? When are these young African American men, when are they going to stop with the shooting and the killing of all these innocent kids? It don’t make any sense.' 

Calling Davell the 'joy' in her life, she added: 'They need to stop this gun violence. I feel like this: You all are ranting and raving about black lives. But you take a life that was only a year and half old. And it’s not fair.'  

She added: 'I hope they catch the b******s and put them under the jail cell.' 

The boy's dad, Davell Sr. said: 'The community is just getting worse and worse. Nobody's doing nothing about it. Nobody. Nobody is trying to make a change. And it's sad to say that. Like every day is just worse. You don't know if you're going to live to see the next day.'

Gardner Jr. was in his stroller around 11:30 p.m. when two men dressed in black approached, fired and fled, the New York Times reported, citing police. Davell, who was hit in the abdomen, died at the hospital, the Times said. 

The boy's dad Davell Sr. and grandmother Samantha spoke out in the wake of his death 

Police said the child had been sitting in a stroller. A stroller was left at the scene as well as several chairs on the sidewalk

The New York Post pictured the child's mother crying at the scene

Davell Sr. added: 'You took my son's life. I can't get that back. I can't hold him no more. I can't hear him calling me daddy no more. I can't kiss them no more. I can't play with them no more. I can't do nothing with him no more. 

'I've got to put my son and the ground now. He's only one. His birthday is in two months, in two months. He didn't live to see two. He didn't live life. It's like I wanted to get him out of here before something like this happened.'

Mayor Bill de Blasio observed a moment of silence and declared himself 'heartbroken' on Monday over the boy's death, part of a recent surge of gun violence in the city. 

'It's just horrifying,' de Blasio said at a news conference to discuss the coronavirus. 'A baby boy, Davell Gardner Jr., one years old, playing at a playground. Davell was just starting his life and his life was full of possibilities. And now he's gone.' 

Cops were pictured on the scene at the Marcus Garvey Boulevard and Madison Street cross-section following the shooting. 

Gardner Jr. was in his stroller around 11:30 p.m. when two men dressed in black approached, fired and fled, the New York Times reported, citing police. Davell, who was hit in the abdomen, died at the hospital, the Times said.

Police said the child had been sitting in a stroller. A stroller was left at the scene as well as several chairs on the sidewalk. 

The toddler passed away around 2.30am on Monday after being transported to Maimonides Medical Center.

The New York Post pictured the child's mother crying at the scene. The other victims have not been identified. 

The sharp rise in shootings in New York, Chicago and other U.S. cities, coming in the midst of the social disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, runs counter to a 20-year trend toward lower crime.

De Blasio confirms extra police for violent hotspots in New York

Cops were pictured on the scene at the Marcus Garvey Boulevard and Madison Street cross-section following the shooting

The toddler passed away around 2.30am on Monday after being transported to Maimonides Medical Center

The sharp rise in shootings in New York, Chicago and other U.S. cities, coming in the midst of the social disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, runs counter to a 20-year trend toward lower crime

Davell's shooting was one of 11 incidents in which 16 people in New York were shot over the weekend, WABC television reported. 

Shootings were up more than 50 percent this year over 2019 with 585 incidents reported as of July 5, the New York Times said.  

De Blasio mentioned a separate weekend incident in which a 12-year-old was shot in the leg.

'You can never look away from something like this and be numb to it. I'm just heartbroken today,' de Blasio said.

Chief of detectives provides updates on Brooklyn shooting victims

Davell Gardner, one, was shot in the stomach and later died in hospital

A one-year-old boy has died after a shooting in Brooklyn, New York, where three other men were injured and just one of three gun-related incidents that broke out in the city this weekend.

Davell Gardner was fatally injured in the stomach after a dark SUV drove up to the scene of a cookout outside the Raymond Bush Playground in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood and at least two suspects dressed in black emerged and opened fire.

The shooting took place around 11.35pm on Sunday and the other victims were a 27-year-old man shot in the ankle, 35-year-old shot in the groin and a 36-year-old shot in the leg.

Cops were pictured on the scene at the Marcus Garvey Boulevard and Madison Street cross-section following the shooting. 

Police said the child had been sitting in a stroller. A stroller was left at the scene as well as several chairs on the sidewalk. 

The toddler was expected to survive but passed away around 2.30am on Monday after being transported to Maimonides Medical Center.

The New York Post pictured the child's mother crying at the scene. The other victims have not been identified.

Two men dressed in black parked outside Raymond Bush Playground in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of New York City Sunday at 11.35pm and opened fire. A stroller was left at the scene as well as several chairs on the sidewalk

'The baby was with his family enjoying a Sunday night in the Summer when someone started shooting,' Chief Jeffrey Maddrey of the NYPD Chief of Community Affairs Bureau tweeted. 

'Three people were injured and the baby was killed. This. Must. STOP! We as a community, we as a police department denounce this disgusting violence.'

'These are the very real people affected by senseless gun violence,' NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea tweeted as he asked anyone with information to contact police.

The police boss met with the child's mother on Monday and Mayor Bill de Blasio mentioned the senseless shooting in his press briefing the same day. 

No suspects had been arrested by Monday at noon afternoon. 

'All I ask is they get the people who done this,' a relative at the scene of the shooting told The Post. 

Davell Gardner (not pictured), one, was shot in the stomach and died in hospital on Monday around 2.30am

Sunday's incident came as part of a series of shootings since midday on Saturday where around 23 people were injured in New York City, according to police sources. ABC reported that on Sunday alone 16 people were injured in 11 gunfire incidents.

Two other minors were victims and both are expected to survive, according to authorities.

In Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood, a 12-year-old boy was shot in the leg on Prospect Place near Ralph Avenue around 9.10pm on Sunday. He was standing on a stoop when he felt pain and realized he'd been hit in the leg. He was in stable condition in hospital.

At around 5.30pm on Sunday, a 15-year-old boy was shot in the wrist at Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard near West 143rd Street in Harlem.

Since the start of the year until July 4 there have been 530 shooting incidents, compared to 350 in the same period last year. There haven't been this many shootings reported since 1996.

Police data shows that shootings in the city last month were up 130 per cent year on the year - from 89 shootings last year to 205 this year. 

The family had been enjoying a cookout at Marcus Garvey Boulevard and Madison Street

The NYPD has blamed a recent surge in gun violence on the release of people from jails amid the coronavirus pandemic and on recent calls to defund the police in favour of injecting some of the money into deprived communities.

However Mayor Bill de Blasio has blamed the court system and the struggle that the pandemic has placed on already deprived communities.

 'Do we think this has to do with the fact that there's record unemployment in the United States right now?' Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asked in a virtual Town Hall last Thursday. 'The fact that people are at a level of economic desperation that we have not seen since the Great Recession?

'Maybe this has to do with the fact that people aren't paying their rent and are scared to pay their rent.

'And so they go out, and they need to feed their child and they don't have money so they feel like they either need to shoplift some bread or go hungry.'

Anyone with information on the case should contact the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-8477, or text CRIMES and then enter TIP577, or visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com.