A young mother has been shot dead in a chilling point-blank assault while pushing her baby in a stroller on the Upper East Side of New York City.

The murder occurred at around 8.23pm on Wednesday on a sidewalk at the intersection of Lexington Avenue and 95th Street, steps from a playground filled with children, officials said.

The 20-year-old victim was walking with her three-month-old baby when the shooter approached her and ‘fired a single shot into her head from a very close range,’ NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell told reporters.

The unidentified killer immediately fled on foot heading eastbound on East 95th Street and remains at large, police said.

NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell (center) and NYC Mayor Eric Adams (right) brief the press on a shooting after a woman walking her baby was shot dead on the Upper East Side

A mother has been shot dead in a chilling point-blank assault while pushing her baby in a stroller on the Upper East Side of New York City

The shooter was described as a male wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and black pants. Police offered no further description of the killer.

The woman was rushed to nearby Metropolitan Hospital, where she died within an hour. The baby was also taken to the hospital for evaluation but was unharmed. 

The area where the shooting occurred is an upscale neighborhood where violent street crime is less common. Across the street is the Samuel Seabury Playground.  

Officials are probing domestic violence as a potential motive in the shooting, but have not yet confirmed such a connection. 

Police are withholding the identity of the victim pending family notification.

New York Mayor Eric Adams in remarks to reporters slammed the ‘over-proliferation of guns and how readily accessible they are.’

Officers respond after a mother was shot in the head point-blank on an UES sidewalk

The murder occurred at around 8.23pm on Wednesday evening on a sidewalk at the intersection of Lexington Avenue and 95th Street, steps from a playground

The shooter was described as a male wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and black pants

‘There is just no fear in using these guns on innocent New Yorkers and this is the result of that,’ said Adams, a Democrat who took office in January on a platform of curbing violent crime. 

‘A woman is pushing a baby carriage down the block and is shot in point-blank range, it shows just how this national problem is impacting families,’ he continued.

‘The over-saturation of guns, and dangerous people that repeatedly leave our criminal justice system to continue actions like this, it is what’s making the New York City Police Department and other law enforcement agencies…difficult to fight this issue,’ he added.

Anyone with information about the shooting is urged to contact NYPD detectives at 1-800-577-TIPS.

Developing story, more to follow.